Hi there,
For a while now I have been trying to get Squeak 1.3 to work on various sytems (Windows 96, Linux, Mac). I haven't been able to do anything useful with it yet though. I get it to start, but anything more complicated than 'hello world' like stuff results in errors.. or hangs my system (any of them). Heck, evensimply opening views often fails.
I can't load any *.st or *.cs files. When I import Newsagent.st or the stuff from the Windows Junta and try to get them to work, it always results in 'message not understood' and whatever errors indicating that there are commands missing. Trying to fix things by hand usualy leads to cascading error messages popping up all over the place... and I am not that good in low-level programming in Smalltalk yet to solve them easily.
I love the whole concept of Squeak, but as it is now it's not of much use to me. But before I delete the thing from all my systems forgood, I want to give it one more chance. So, could anyone point out to me what the heck I might be doing wrong? What precautions should I take to make Squeak work properly, otherwise than stated in the (skimpy) documentation.
Thanks in advance!
Greetz,
RS
Greetings, Richard.
Re:
For a while now I have been trying to get Squeak 1.3 to work on various sytems (Windows 96, Linux, Mac). I haven't been able to do anything useful with it yet though. I get it to start, but anything more complicated than 'hello world' like stuff results in errors.. or hangs my system (any of them). Heck, evensimply opening views often fails.
Don't panic. Although 1.3 does have some bugs (soon to be fixed), they aren't that serious. I suspect your files may have been corrupted on download. Another possible problem is insufficient memory.
Try the following: a. download and unpack the 1.3 release for the Mac b. download and unpack the file SqueakV1.sources Place all files into the same folder. The critical ones are the .image file, the .changes file, SqueakV1.sources, and the virtual machine (i.e., the executable). Reboot your Mac. Drop the .image file onto the executable. When it starts up, use the desktop menu "help" and select "space left" from the submenu. If you have less than a megabyte, quit and use the Mac "Get Info" command to increase the memory allocation of the Squeak executable.
I suggest starting the the Mac version only because that what I've been using myself, so I can vouche for its stability. However, I believe the Win95 and Linux versions are equally stable.
If you still have troubles, try going back to version 1.23, which was really rock-solid. 1.31, which will be out within the week, should fix a number of gliches with 1.3 and add some cool new features as well.
Re:
I can't load any *.st or *.cs files. When I import Newsagent.st or the stuff from the Windows Junta and try to get them to work, it always results in 'message not understood' and whatever errors indicating that there are commands missing. Trying to fix things by hand usualy leads to cascading error messages popping up all over the place... and I am not that good in low-level programming in Smalltalk yet to solve them easily.
Squeak does not yet support line-end conversion, although I believe someone recently posted goodie that does that. Thus, it expects to see a single <cr> at the end of every line. Thus, when you download ..st or .cs files, you must be sure that the line-ends are not converted. On the Mac, downloading them as "text" should do the right thing. Some versions of StuffIt include a utility that can fix line ends, or you can a few lines of Squeak to do it.
I think you are very close to getting Squeak running. Good luck!
-- John
Richard,
So, could anyone point out to me what the heck I might be doing wrong? What precautions should I take to make Squeak work properly, otherwise than stated in the (skimpy) documentation.
Try the following: 1. Download a complete set of all files you need. Make sure these files are ok and not touched by any download problems. I recommend downloading a Stuffit/Zip/Tar file (depending on your preferred platform) since the compressed files usually have checksums. 2. Decompress the files in a single folder. There should be four files now: Squeak1.X.image, Squeak1.X.changes, SqueakV1.sources (the "X" stands for the version) and an executable file (named differently because of platform specifics), e.g. Squeak.exe on Windows. If you download version 1.3 or later you may have two executables - don't worry, the other one is the experimental JITTER VM. 3. (Assuming you're using a graphical UI) Drag the file "Squeak1.X.image" on any executable. 4. Look what's happening. If you get messages such "Squeak could not find the file XXXXXXXX" then you haven't put all of the files in the same folder. In general, you must not get such a message. If you do, something is wrong. 5. Try the graphics/sound examples in the "Welcome to Squeak" Window.
Now you are ready to go. Please note that if you download stuff from the web you should always do binary download. If you don't know how to do this or if the contents of the file downloaded looks spurios try installing the CrLfFileStream.
If it is still not working, drop me a note.
Hope this helps, Andreas
On Sat, 31 Jan 1998, Andreas Raab wrote:
Richard,
So, could anyone point out to me what the heck I might be doing wrong? What precautions should I take to make Squeak work properly, otherwise than stated in the (skimpy) documentation.
Try the following:
- Download a complete set of all files you need. Make sure these files are ok and not touched by any download problems. I recommend downloading a Stuffit/Zip/Tar file (depending on your preferred platform) since the compressed files usually have checksums.
I am by far no newbie when it comes to the Internet. Binary download is on whatever I do.... and I use the proper archivers.
- Decompress the files in a single folder. There should be four files now: Squeak1.X.image, Squeak1.X.changes, SqueakV1.sources (the "X" stands for the version) and an executable file (named differently because of platform specifics), e.g. Squeak.exe on Windows. If you download version 1.3 or later you may have two executables - don't worry, the other one is the experimental JITTER VM.
Well, I have the same probs whether I use Jitter or not...
- (Assuming you're using a graphical UI) Drag the file "Squeak1.X.image" on any executable.
I prefer command-line stuff whenever possible ;) But I did make a shortcut on Win95.
- Look what's happening. If you get messages such "Squeak could not find the file XXXXXXXX" then you haven't put all of the files in the same folder. In general, you must not get such a message. If you do, something is wrong.
No error-messages whatsoever. Squeak starts up nicely on all platforms I mentioned. I get the spartanic gui in all its splendor: I am able to browse the class-libraries and open whatever view I feel appropriate.
- Try the graphics/sound examples in the "Welcome to Squeak" Window.
They almost all fail :( I don't get it. Very frustrating. I really love Smalltalk and would like to get it all to work.
Help?
RS
- Try the graphics/sound examples in the "Welcome to Squeak" Window.
They almost all fail :( I don't get it. Very frustrating. I really love Smalltalk and would like to get it all to work.
What's happening if you try these? If you could give us some error messages from the examples we might be able to help. BTW, it has been mentioned before but you should execute "Text initTextConstants" on a raw 1.3 image. For some strange reason the TextConstants have been reset.
Andreas
Andreas Raab wrote:
- Try the graphics/sound examples in the "Welcome to Squeak" Window.
They almost all fail :( I don't get it. Very frustrating. I really love Smalltalk and would like to get it all to work.
What's happening if you try these? If you could give us some error messages from the examples we might be able to help. BTW, it has been mentioned before but you should execute "Text initTextConstants" on a raw 1.3 image. For some strange reason the TextConstants have been reset.
Andreas
Linear algebra is your friend - Trigonometry is your enemy. +===== Andreas Raab ============= (raab@isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de) =====+ I Department of Simulation and Graphics Phone: +49 391 671 8065 I I University of Magdeburg, Germany Fax: +49 391 671 1164 I +=============< http://isgwww.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/~raab >=============+
hi,
I just wanted to mention that, as far as sound problems for 1.30 on Win 95 (166 mhz MMX), I have found that the following makes things MUCH nicer :-).
I had to change the SoundPlayer SamplingRate to 11025 to get ANY sound examples to work properly:
initialize "SoundPlayer initialize" "Details: BufferMSecs represents a tradeoff between latency and quality. If BufferMSecs is too low, the sound will not play smoothing, especially during other activities. If it is too high, there will be an overly long time lag between when a sound buffer is submitted to be played and when that sound is actually heard. It is typically in the range 50-200." "SoundPlayer initialize; shutDown; startUp" SamplingRate _ 11025. BufferMSecs _ 1000. Stereo _ true.
The fresh download had the SamplingRate set at 22050: which allowed MOST of the sound examples to play, but they were accompanied by an annoying metronome like clicking - and the Morphic Book problem mentioned elsewhere was glaring and it froze up Squeak. After changing the SamplingRate, ALL of the sound examples work fine on my machine. Hope this helps.
Ken
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