On Jan 30, 2007, at 14:31 , David Urquhart wrote:
Firstly thanks for the tips I received on how to browse code in Squeak.
Secondly a suggestion - when introducing beginners, a reduced list (but effective set) of classes and methods would make learning easier because the structure of the system would be more apparent and there would be less 'noise'. A metaphor would be teaching an alien how to live on earth - you might start by showing them how to live in a village, then once they knew how to go from house to house and shop etc, you might take them to a town where they can learn to use a library and catch the bus. Finally they might take those ideas to the city just like once I know smalltalk and squeak better I will be able to make use of all these classes and methods. So for instance you might only offer me one type of morph, one type of canvas, one openInBlah etc. So maybe this would be a switch in the browser to hide/show classes and methods of secondary/extended/intermediate/progressed kind.
Doesn't exist for Squeak I think. There was a project called LearningWorks based on VisualWorks Smalltalk (or was it ObjectWorks back then?) which presented a partial view of the system.
The closest Squeak match would be Stef's BotsInc: http:// smallwiki.unibe.ch/botsinc/
Some questions:
Does Squeak follow a 3-button mouse approach to human interface? Is there a plan to surrender that initial idea - I think 2-button is becoming an assumed thing these days irrespective of whether you use Windows, Linux, Mac or something else. How would Squeak have to change if it moved to a 2 button model?
Not at all as far as I'm concerned, it works fine with 1, 2, or 3 button mice. What would *you* like to change?
I'm trying to create a Morphic class that contains a subMorph called internalCircle that is fitted to the bounds of its square parent. Ideally I could then move the parent around and the child would move with it. What's the best way to do this? I want them to be Morphs because I want them to be both visual and encapsulate (different) behaviour of an 'experiment' and a sub component of that experiment.
Well, "best" depends on your goal. You can do that interactively without a line of coding if you want. Just drop the attached file into your image and choose "load as morph".
I'm hearing references to 'scripting' in Squeak or the toy thing that's related. What is it and do I need to learn about it if I'm doing Squeak application development?
For app development it is not "necessary". But it may be enlightening nontheless, as it is the original design goal of Squeak. Many Morphic design decisions are based on this, that's why it is quite different from a legacy UI toolkit. See
http://www.squeakland.org/whatis/whatismain.html
- Bert -