Beginners July 2008

beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org

62 participants
72 discussions

Totally dumbfounded!!
by Stephen Ng 05 Jul '08

05 Jul '08

David and everyone else, Thanks for your input. I won't get on my soapbox here and debate whether Smalltalk/Squeak is suitable for anything. I'm just trying to find out about the language and perhaps come to understand the OO paradigm. Some of you have directed me to Squeak By Example (SBE) which I briefly looked at and it really seems like a good beginners book. It seems to me though that even though in smalltalk/squeak it is possible to read all the code in the system, it is still a very poor and inefficient way of learning about any of the class libraries in Smalltalk. After looking up some of the code, I find I end up more confused than when I started. SBE has a few pages on Morphic but the class library for smalltalk seems huge for a beginner like me. For example, after trying to look at the Graphics classes, there may be many ways to instantiate an object (I might be wrong, in that case I take back everything I have to say on the subject!!). No one really has the time to go through every method to find out which is suitable and even then the commentary is not always very good. Some of the methods do not appear to do anything useful (if I may say so) because they depend on the support provided by a whole series of other methods (and even classes) and states of variables. In the end I might still not have learnt how the whole thing works! So my question is, is there any documentation on the complete class library for Squeak written in a more accessible style for the uninitiated? Some of you might say that I should study Squeak more before commenting. I guess I am trying to pre-empt things so that I don't go down a path which eventually will lead me to too many dead ends. Again thanks for all your comments and your interest in helping someone out. Stephen

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[Q] Best way of know when a object was added to the image
by Edgar J. De Cleene 05 Jul '08

05 Jul '08

I just "discover" Object DNU timeStamp. I ask this because loadKnowPackages "UCodeLoader loadKnowPackages" | obj loader req | loader _ CodeLoader new. loader baseURL: 'ftp.squeak.org/various_images/SqueakLight/SLupdates/'. req := loader createRequestFor: 'KnowPackages.obz' in: HTTPLoader default.. obj := loader readObject: req. KnowPackages := obj knowPackages ^KnowPackages How I could know if KnowPackages is older as the file on the server ? For curiosity, how we could know the "age" of all objects in the image ? Edgar

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Re: [Newbies] Totally dumbfounded!!
by Marcin Tustin 04 Jul '08

04 Jul '08

Stephen, Although in theory it is possible to look anything up in the source code, don't be discouraged that you cannot do this yet. Marcin On 7/4/08, Stephen Ng <stephen.ng(a)planetnutek.com> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > First off, I am really new to smalltalk. I have tons of experience with > languages like C but have never made the move to OO type languages. > > Secondly, I've been reading up as much as I can on OO concepts and perhaps > I can say that I feel comfortable with smalltalk syntax. My question is how > does one start learning about the MVC or Morphic interfaces in order to use > smalltalk in writing programs that make use of lots of windows with text > fields etc like in traditional business systems? I cannot seem to find > complete info on these topics. Many tutorials just spend lots of time > painting pretty lines and patterns and fall short of showing someone like me > how best to use the MVC, Graphics-* or Morphic-* class categories and their > classes. I understand Morphic is the new wave as far as Squeak is concerned > and I would be just as happy to use it. However, all the literature on the > web is really disparate and does not approach the subject in a holistic way. > I've even tried looking at the classes themselves in the Browser but the > whole thing just gets very confusing. > > I'd appreciate it if anyone can provide some pointers, direction, > literature (up to date with Squeak) etc. > > Thanks in advance. > > Stephen > _______________________________________________ > Beginners mailing list > Beginners(a)lists.squeakfoundation.org > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners >

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Working Copy of WxSqueak
by Rob Rothwell 04 Jul '08

04 Jul '08

Just wondering if anyone out there has a working copy of WxSqueak. Long ago I was able to make it run, but now I can't seem to. I just get a window frame with nothing in it. Just wondering. I finally know enough about Squeak to probably be able to figure out how to use it! Rob

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Changing superclass doesn't "work automatically"
by Marcin Tustin 03 Jul '08

03 Jul '08

I recently came across a piece of behaviour which is (sort of) understandable, but I wonder if it is how it is supposed to happen or not. I was running through the potsdam seaside tutorial, and I change the superclass of one of the objects from Object to WAComponent, and accepted the change. All the browser tools treated the class as if its protocol included the messages of WAComponent, but running code that sent WAComponent messages signaled MessageNotUnderstood. I fixed the problem by running Compiler recompileAllFrom: 'StMenuComponent'.I cannot reproduce the behaviour in a workspace with subclasses of Object/String. Any ideas on why this happened, but is not reproduceable in the workspace, and is it supposed to work like that?

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Re: [Newbies] Changing superclass doesn't "work automatically"
by Marcin Tustin 03 Jul '08

03 Jul '08

So, this was unexpected behaviour? Certainly the way that Bert describes appears to be what happened in my workspace-based tests. On 7/3/08, Bert Freudenberg <bert(a)freudenbergs.de> wrote: > > Am 03.07.2008 um 05:27 schrieb Randal L. Schwartz: > > "Marcin" == Marcin Tustin <mm3(a)zepler.net> writes: >>>>>>> >>>>>> >> Marcin> I recently came across a piece of behaviour which is (sort of) >> Marcin> understandable, but I wonder if it is how it is supposed to happen >> or >> Marcin> not. I was running through the potsdam seaside tutorial, and I >> change >> Marcin> the superclass of one of the objects from Object to WAComponent, >> and >> Marcin> accepted the change. All the browser tools treated the class as if >> its >> Marcin> protocol included the messages of WAComponent, but running code >> that >> Marcin> sent WAComponent messages signaled MessageNotUnderstood. >> >> Are you sure you weren't dealing with a previous instance of your old >> class? >> I think this kind of a change forks the class def so that new instances >> have >> the new superclass, but old instances still have the old class and old >> superclass (anObsoleteYourClassnameHere). >> >> I could be wrong, but tI think that's how it works. >> > > > Smalltalk does not work that way. If the class format changed, all existing > instance are bulk-migrated to the new class (by creating new instances and > doing a forward-become on all of them). > > - Bert - > > > _______________________________________________ > Beginners mailing list > Beginners(a)lists.squeakfoundation.org > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners >

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Re: [Newbies] What's the deal with the changes file/versions button?
by Marcin Tustin 03 Jul '08

03 Jul '08

OK, thanks - problem solved! For the record, I discovered that the world menu (left click on seaside desktop) has a "changes" item which leads to a bunch of stuff including "recently logged changes". From there, you get a menu asking how far back to browse, and from there one can recover lost edits. On 7/3/08, Bert Freudenberg <bert(a)freudenbergs.de> wrote: > > > Am 03.07.2008 um 18:39 schrieb Marcin Tustin: > > I see a lot of stuff telling me that the changes file logs accepted edits, >> and that this is useful if the dog rolls over the power cord. Having lost >> power on the computer today, I can't find a way to access any unsaved, but >> accepted changes. Is there a setting for this? Is there some other way to >> get accepted edits to code saved? >> > > See the FAQ's "Trouble shooting" section, in particular "What do I do when > Squeak crashes or freezes?" > > http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/471 > > > - Bert - > > > _______________________________________________ > Beginners mailing list > Beginners(a)lists.squeakfoundation.org > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners >

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Re: Loading Essential package from Monticello (was [Newbies] isKindOf considered questionable)
by squeak414＠free.fr 03 Jul '08

03 Jul '08

Quoting Lukas Renggli <renggli(a)iam.unibe.ch>: > I am sorry, I missed your post. > > The repository should finally work. I tested it from different images. > Sorry about the inconvenience. > > Cheers, > Lukas > Hi Lukas, Thanks, I now have it working in a 3.9.1 image. Are there any more instructions anywhere please? In particular, I don't seem to be able to scope it down to just my package. So for example, when I change a single test, which has 11 checks in code critics, to subclass ESLintTestCase, it shows 75 run, 5 passes, 0 expected failures, 69 failures, 1 errors, 0 unexpected passes. Nearly all the checks shown are way outside my package, for example: BooklikeMorph>>fromURL: url throws an Unnecessary assignment or return in block Also, I can't get it going at all under 3.10- the method #addToSuiteFromSelectors: appears to be gone from TestCase. ESLintSelfTest class(Object)>>doesNotUnderstand: #addToSuiteFromSelectors: Receiver: ESLintSelfTest Arguments and temporary variables: aMessage: addToSuiteFromSelectors: a TestSuite Receiver's instance variables: superclass: ESLintTestCase methodDict: a MethodDictionary(#environment->a CompiledMethod (2997) #shouldFai...etc... format: 142 instanceVariables: nil organization: ('accessing' environment) ('examples' shouldFail1 shouldFail2 sho...etc... subclasses: nil name: #ESLintSelfTest classPool: nil sharedPools: nil environment: a SystemDictionary(lots of globals) category: #'Essential-SLint' traitComposition: nil localSelectors: nil Thanks, ...Stan

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What's the deal with the changes file/versions button?
by Marcin Tustin 03 Jul '08

03 Jul '08

I see a lot of stuff telling me that the changes file logs accepted edits, and that this is useful if the dog rolls over the power cord. Having lost power on the computer today, I can't find a way to access any unsaved, but accepted changes. Is there a setting for this? Is there some other way to get accepted edits to code saved?

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mp3 support in 3.10
by smith02243 02 Jul '08

02 Jul '08

When I had installed 3.9 on my Linux box, I saw the MPEGPlayerMorph. However, sound did not work on 3.9 in ubuntu. So, with the help of the fedora image, I installed 3.10. Everything worked beautifully, except that the MPEGPlayerMorph was no longer there. I understand it's been culled from the image. How can I install the MPEGPlayerMorph, or more specifically the StreamingMP3Sound class? StreamingMP3Sound is in the Sound-Synthesis category, and therefore the Sound package, apparently. Yet, in Monticello the Sound package, on souce.squeakfoundation.org/310, doesn't contain that class. Moreover, I can't find it the Package Universe Browser, even with I install "universes" from the SqueakMap Package Loader, which one site recommended I am completely lost. All I want to do is play mp3 files. Regards, -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/mp3-support-in-3.10-tp18219359p18219359.html Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Beginners July 2008