wxSqueak application sample

German Arduino gsa at softhome.net
Mon Oct 18 10:24:06 UTC 2004


Pavel Krivanek wrote:
>>Very cool!
>>
>>I haven't tried wxSqueak (yet), can comment your impressions about
>>productivity in developing, pros and cons and experiences using it?
>>
> 
> 
> I have to say, that using wxSqueak now has many problematic aspects. There's
> available only demo release with the minimal interface and it implements
> only messages that have been needed for simple demonstration applications.
> 
>             Fortunately the generated set of primitives and basic
> encapsulating methods is almost complete and so if you need next
> functionality, you have only to write (or generate) a Smalltalk wrapper. In
> current wxSqueak you cannot find such basic methods as getValue of
> WxTextCtrl (simple edit box) and you have to write by self!
> 
>             When the primitive interface is missing, you have to find the
> other way how to implement what you want. But it's not frequent trouble.
> 
>             You cannot use any GUI builder now.
> 
>             Today wxSqueak runs only on Windows. The initial release doesn't
> work on Windows 98, but I have found the way how to persuade it to run. I
> had to totally rewrite the startup sequence of Squeak, kill all Squeak
> processes which aren't needed (as Morphic UI loop etc.), tune wxSqueak event
> and callback system processes priorities etc. As the side effect I have
> perfectly lockdowned image ;-)
> 
>             When you write wxSqueak application, many errors cause VM crash,
> so you have to save your work often (last logged changes don't help you many
> times).
> 
>             There are some other issues while message passing, overriding
> some specific methods etc.
> 
> 
> 
>             For all that I have to say, that wxSqueak is excellent piece of
> code. The moment you write general Smalltalk wrappers (you bind combo boxes
> with collections, write the set of specific edit boxes for entering and
> validating numbers, dates etc..), you get really very nice tool that can use
> all power of Smalltalk behind it. It's very productive and flexible.
> Structure of code is easy to read and understand. And if you tune wxSqueak
> system processes, it's as fast as any other native application.
> 
> 
> 
>             It's sure that wxSqueak has huge potential. It can give new
> dimension to Squeak development and bring it closer to mainstream. While
> programming you can still use Morphic with all its capabilities and
> development tools, but your customer gets something what looks familiar.
> 
>             I hope that the author of wxSqueak makes the development process
> of it more open soon.
> 
> 
> 
> Pavel
> 
> 
> 

Thanks by the comments Pavel.

Regards.
gsa.




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