squeakland May 2006

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

16 participants
17 discussions

Re: [Squeakland] squeakland plugin for unix
by Brad Fuller 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Hi All, New to this list. I submitted the following email to squeak-dev. Anyone here answer these? ======================= a few questions on the squeakland browser plugin for unix, if someone in-the-know can answer: Is the squeakland image special? (different from the regular ol' squeak images?) Is the vm different too? Or is the only difference the npspeak.so file and the symbolic link it creates (e.g. create symbolic link `/usr/lib/firefox-1.5/plugins/npsqueak.so' to `/usr/lib/squeak/3.7-7/npsqueak.so') I'm afraid the squeakland vm will overwrite my current vm. Is that needless worrying? Can I run them independently (that is without changing directories and creating links so they don't interfere in the "default" installation process) ======================= BTW: I receive this error: 'Error loading http://www.squeakland.org/uploads/WeaselEssay1.015/resource.10.form when loading the project on this page: http://www.squeakland.org/whatis/a_essays.html

3 4

Re: [Squeakland] Setting Up a Server to Handle Squeak Projects
by Miguel At Squeakland 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

Hello all, The URL noted in the last entry to this thread doesn't exist at all. Please let me know where the dead link resides and I will correct. The detection process is automatic and kicks in when the Download Squeak link is used. Thanks in advance for the help finding the dead link. cheers, Miguel Perez At 11:28 AM 5/29/2006, you wrote: >Milan Zimmermann wrote: >>> >>> >>>2. Will detection of the plugin be semi-automatic? I.e., if a user >>>without the plugin tries to download a Squeak project, will he get an >>>error, an ugly binary dump or something meaningful? >>> >> >> >> >> >From what I remember, in the life without the plugin in all my >> browsers, if >>done "correctly" it will redirect user to the site where to find the plugin. >>If you use the simple version on top, it will do it right. >> >when visiting this URI: ><http://www.squeakland.org/plugin/detect/detectinstaller.html>http://www.squeakland.org/plugin/detect/detectinstaller.html >and clicking on the page area of the missing plugin, the "Manual >Install" points to a non-existent page. This error is received: >-- >Not Found >The requested URL /plugin/detect/detectinstaller.html was not found >on this server. >-- > >"download the plugin" link works, though. > >brad >(I've copied the squeakland ml so they'll know the error at the web page) > >_______________________________________________ >Squeakland mailing list >Squeakland(a)squeakland.org >http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland All the best, Miguel Perez "Squeak - The tool for inventing the future!" http://www.squeakland.org

2 1

Re: [Squeakland] Setting Up a Server to Handle Squeak Projects
by Brad Fuller 29 May '06

29 May '06

1 0

PicoCrickets - New hands-on Kit
by Kim Rose 27 May '06

27 May '06

Hello, I thought you'd be interested in knowing about "PicoCrickets" (PICO - Playful Invention Company) brought to by colleagues at the MIT Media Lab and others. http://www.picocricket.com - Kim

2 1

Some more projects...
by Markus Gaelli 25 May '06

25 May '06

Hi, you might be interested in some projects I was doing recently: Lunar Lander (in German) http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://www.emergent.de/pub/ smalltalk/squeak/projects/mondlandung.pr Iterated function systems: Fractal Fern http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://www.emergent.de/pub/ smalltalk/squeak/projects/fractal_fern.pr Finite State Automaton: http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://www.emergent.de/pub/ smalltalk/squeak/projects/fsaNice.pr Have fun, Markus

2 1

Etoys: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (was Re: Whither Squeak?)
by Markus Gaelli 24 May '06

24 May '06

On May 23, 2006, at 9:49 PM, Alan Kay wrote: > A good exercise (and very useful) would be just to build a new (and > much better) Etoys in your new Morphic. There is nothing sacred in > the current version of Etoys. Hi, having some fun Etoys experience myself (http://www.emergent.de/ etoys.html) I compiled a list (should I say Set ;-)) "Etoys: The good, the bad and the ugly" - (to be criticized, prioritized and extended of course) Good: - Forces one to unify GUI + Model, which often does makes sense (think naked objects) - Allows visual programming using tiles - Comes with a rich set of toys - Is prototype based (good for exploring) - types variables by examples - holders/playfields are very powerful (iteration, inclusion...) - Generates Smalltalk Code in the background - Nice concept of halos - Connectors... - Quite transparent parallelism - Is translated to many languages - Net Morphs are coool - Nebraska (if it works) is nice too - Recorded sounds can be used as tiles - scripts allow parameters (though I seldom needed this) - Hardware Support (forgot the name, but this japanese people converting external measurements into sounds, which is in turn translated into sound...) - Is Used! - Comes with some simple sensors (overlaps, color sees...) - Constraints of Etoys allow some creativity - Kedama Bad: - Not easy for end user to extend with smalltalk code (e.g. some frustrated lisp programmer could not add midi to Etoys) - Limited set of events (will be better with Etoys2 ak Tweak) - Traces of turtles are pixels not objects (want to create some vector graphic with turtles...) - No notion of matrices ak 2D Fields - projects only storable as binaries (would be cool if commands would be logged en passant while creating a project...) - Squeak Plugin not widespread - some properties are not available (why can't I treat every player as a holder?) - Cannot extend with scripts which deliver booleans, always have to make a variable for that (maybe ok though) - Tiles create code, but code does not create tiles - Not yet available for 3d (croquet programming with Etoys would rock) - No bracketing of arithmetic expressions - preceding rules of Smalltalk and not of high school mathematics - Some tiles don't accept input (eg random...) - No debugger for etoys (difficult, but maybe fruitful) - "Genetive Programming" (first script any object, then say, that e.g. this script actually should affect the player at cursor...) - Connectors too much hidden - Strange organization of method categories (eg. misc...) - siblings can't be broken, copies can't be "siblinged" - No tasks, riddles with possible solutions online - no physics engine - Tweak, ak Etoys2 seems still to be slow - Projects in Projects are not publishable - Cells in Matrices should know about their neighbors - No use of midi - maybe Kedama could be integrated better Ugly: - mangling of EToys code everywhere in Squeak (though I strongly favor further inclusion of "the best etoys currently available" in the kitchen sink image Ok, got that of the list now... Cheers, Markus > > Cheers, > > Alan > > ---------- > > At 04:36 AM 5/23/2006, Juan Vuletich wrote: >> Hi Daniel, >> >> I used MudPie for splitting Morphic. As I said in another message, >> I failed at making Etoys and MorphicExtras easy to unload and load >> back. This is because for fixing the bad dependencies without >> needing two versions of many core methods (i.e. methods not in the >> package we are removing). Doing this carefully is way too much for >> me (and for anybody, I guess). Squeak is too big! >> >> My experience with MudPie was excellent. It is great for spotting >> those dependencies. It works great, and when I needed some help, >> or new features, Daniel helped me a lot, and implemented many of >> my suggestions. Thanks, Daniel! And I can say: MudPie does work in >> 3.9. >> >> The problem was not lack of tools like MudPie. I could think of a >> tool that could automate the generation of some of the code needed >> for removing dependencies. But I don't think that would be a good >> solution. The only way to clean code is by understanding it. So, >> to me the problem is: too much work, too little time. >> >> Cheers, >> Juan Vuletich >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Vainsencher" >> <danielv(a)tx.technion.ac.il> >> To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list" <squeak- >> dev(a)lists.squeakfoundation.org> >> Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 7:42 AM >> Subject: Re: Whither Squeak? >> >> >>> Hi Ralph >>> >>> Improving design: >>> ------------------------------ >>> One of the problems is that Squeak did much of its growth without >>> any explicit package system. As a side effect, these systems >>> usually enforce a-cyclic dependencies. Cyclic dependencies >>> (considering just compilation-time-obvious dependencies, like a >>> method in one class refering to a parent) are rampant in Squeak >>> (see references to Morph), making it difficult to decompose. >>> >>> I wrote some code to aid finding, reducing and keeping down the >>> incidence of such dependencies, called MudPie[1] (available from >>> SqueakMap, I don't guarantee it works 3.9, but will if there's >>> interest). DanI wrote some other modularization aid code. Some >>> people have looked at these efforts, for example Juan, and tried >>> to use them - I'll let them speak about their usefulness and/or >>> problems. I would call neither tools, since they didn't include a >>> real UI and such, which is sufficient cause for them to never >>> have become widely used. >>> >>> Package system: >>> -------------------------- >>> I believe that the management of the code of Squeak in tool >>> supported packages is a critical component of any solution - this >>> is the only way to keep the boundaries up to date. So the >>> existance of MC exists makes this task somewhat feasible, but >>> there have been various problems with its use to manage the whole >>> image. >>> >>> - Performance (loading updates to the image using MC is much >>> slower than loading changesets). >>> - System changes (like introducing Traits) require going through >>> various intermediate stages, but MC itself only model merging the >>> code in order to reach the final stage to be loaded. >>> - Workflow: >>> -- Support for cherry picking is very basic in current MC (which >>> MC2 should improve). >>> -- MC is quite workflow agnostic, but maintaining Squeak does >>> require some workflow (people write fixes, other people merge >>> them), and maintaining it as a set of packages requires even more >>> of it (coordination of entry of package changes into the official >>> release). Right now we use a combination of SqueakSource, Mantis, >>> and email, glued together by (what seems to me like) lots of >>> overhead. >>> >>> >>> Daniel Vainsencher >>> [1] listed in http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/journals/ >>> cl/cl30.html >>>> On 5/19/06, Cees De Groot <cdegroot(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> the tools have >>>>> performance problems when trying to manage the whole image. >>>> >>>> Can you be specific? What tools? Can you give stories of how >>>> tools failed you? >>>> >>>>> On a more philosophical stance, Squeak has grown organically. And >>>>> anything organic tends to get fuzzy, maybe even almost fractal, >>>>> borders between the various parts. Try separating a leaf from its >>>>> stem, on the cell level, for starters... >>>> >>>> Squeak is a bit more extreme than others, but not a lot. As Fred >>>> Brooks said, all successful large systems started as successful >>>> small >>>> systems. Organic growth is typical, not atypical. Refactoring >>>> is a >>>> lot of hard work and Squeak doesn't have people being paid to do >>>> this >>>> kind of work. But I find it hard to believe that Squeak is >>>> worse than >>>> Word, or Gnu EMACS, or any other large system that has been >>>> around for >>>> a long time. The difference is that Microsoft pays people a lot of >>>> money to modularize Word. It goes though periods of organic >>>> growth, >>>> and then periods of modularization as they try to reuse code across >>>> projects or within Word. Most software does this. >>>> >>>> This is why I think modularizing Squeak is an interesting project, >>>> because we can learn lessons from it that will apply to all >>>> software. >>>> So, we need to write about what we are doing, the problems we >>>> discover, and the lessons we learn. >>>> >>>> Squeak hasn't needed to be modular enough for people to do the >>>> work to >>>> make it so. Now it does. (Well, it probably has for several >>>> years, >>>> so "now" means "the last few years".) >>>> >>>> -Ralph Johnson >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> No virus found in this incoming message. >>> Checked by AVG Free Edition. >>> Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.1/344 - Release Date: >>> 5/19/2006 >>> >> > > > >

2 1

[ANN] Introducing SuperSwiki2
by Masashi UMEZAWA 19 May '06

19 May '06

Hi all, I have developed SuperSwiki2, a 'clean-room' rewritten version of SuperSwiki. http://swikis.ddo.jp/SuperSwiki2/3 You can see a sample site here: (in Japanese) http://squeakland.jp/super2 SuperSwiki2 has many notable features: - Filtering projects by category - Keyword search - Built-in BBS system - M17N support - RSS support - Import/export projects (you can merge many SuperSwiki2s) - Clients automatically finds SuperSwiki2 in LAN (etc...) Windows installer http://swikis.ddo.jp/SuperSwiki2/18 Platform Independent Downloads http://swikis.ddo.jp/SuperSwiki2/19 Enjoy! -- [:masashi | ^umezawa]

2 1

Re: [Squeakland] TinLizzie wiki
by Alan Kay 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hi -- Good prowling. We plan to make this new plugin available sometime this summer -- right now it is "experimental". The current link to this on the LogoWiki site says: "TinLizzie" is a WYSIWYG wiki that implements Etoys using a special document format (and it needs a plugin that is not yet generally distributed). To test it go <http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://tinlizzie.org/repos/shared/To%…>here I put this link in to have a nice jumping off place for some demos I'm giving over the next few months. TinLizzie is essentially a re-engineering of important parts of the Etoy environment to try to put together a more efficient and accessible architecture for the $100 laptop project, and a big yet to be started educational project in South Africa. Cheers, Alan At 07:02 PM 5/16/2006, Dave wrote: >I was browsing the One Laptop Per Child site >http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Wiki_as_an_ebook_reader >and came accross http://www.logowiki.net/ >On this wiki, which supports working Logo programs on the wiki pages, >there was a link to TinLizzie, which is supposed to be a wiki which >supports eToys embeded in wiki pages. I tried the link, which started >a Squeak plug-in, but it came up with an error message with the >"loading" progress bar in the background. >http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://tinlizzie.org/repos/shared/To%… > >Can you provide us with additional info on TinLizzie or supply a link >that works, so that we can play with it? This sounds like a wonderful >environment for using Squeak in the classroom. > >Thanks, >Dave >http://squeak.pbwiki.com > >_______________________________________________ >Squeakland mailing list >Squeakland(a)squeakland.org >http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

1 0

TinLizzie wiki
by Dave 17 May '06

17 May '06

I was browsing the One Laptop Per Child site http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Wiki_as_an_ebook_reader and came accross http://www.logowiki.net/ On this wiki, which supports working Logo programs on the wiki pages, there was a link to TinLizzie, which is supposed to be a wiki which supports eToys embeded in wiki pages. I tried the link, which started a Squeak plug-in, but it came up with an error message with the "loading" progress bar in the background. http://www.squeakland.org/project.jsp?http://tinlizzie.org/repos/shared/To%… Can you provide us with additional info on TinLizzie or supply a link that works, so that we can play with it? This sounds like a wonderful environment for using Squeak in the classroom. Thanks, Dave http://squeak.pbwiki.com

1 0

Fwd: Summer Squeak Workshops
by Kim Rose 16 May '06

16 May '06

> > >Hello, >The Office for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education at the >University of Illinois has scheduled two workshops for teachers and >administrators interested in learning Squeak and in exploring a >variety of curriculum applications. Please distribute this to those >you think may be interested in attending the workshops. There is no >charge for these workshops. > * Squeak is a programming language and multi-media environment >suitable for students K-12. > * Squeak applications include: interactive books, animations, >games, presentations, spoken words and music. > * Squeak can be used to explore math concepts dynamically: >numbers, operations, calculations, patterns, algebra, geometry and >probability. > * Squeak is free and runs the same on Macs and PCs. >Squeak Workshop Information >Dates: June 19, 2006 9:00 A.M.- 4:00 P.M. > June 20, 2006 9:00 A.M.- 4:00 P.M. >Reservations required by May 31, 2006: squeakcmi(a)uiuc.edu or call >the MSTE office 217/244-7486 or Avigail Snir at 351-4933, Kathleen >Harness 356-8904 for more information >Lunch: There is too a free lunch. >CPDU's: 7 per day >Location: UIUC campus computer lab location (to be announced) >Materials: on-line tutorials and example projects www.squeakcmi.org > > >**************************************************** >George Reese >Office for Mathematics, Science, and > Technology Education (MSTE) >Office Phone: 217.333.6604 >www.mste.uiuc.edu > >****************************************************

2 2

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

squeakland May 2006