[squeak-dev] How to use Environments?

Jakob Reschke jakob.reschke at student.hpi.de
Wed Sep 28 09:17:15 UTC 2016


Let me repeat my question which might have gone unnoticed in my
previous wall of text:

Why doesn't the global environment (Smalltalk globals) export anything
by default? Is there a reason at all, or was it simply forgotten at
some point (because "nobody uses Environments" anyway)?

Alternatively: Are there downsides of `Smalltalk globals exportSelf`
other than that you have to do it yourself in current Squeak images?

2016-09-23 17:28 GMT+02:00 Jakob Reschke <jakob.reschke at student.hpi.de>:
> In the meantime, I figured out that the Smalltalk globals environment
> does not export anything. Hence, nothing can be imported from it by
> default.
>
> Further, I found this post [1] by Frank Shearar, which contains a
> snippet to load a package into an environment (however,
> EnvironmentRequest has been renamed to CurrentEnvironment since then).
> He also proposes `Smalltalk globals exportSelf` there, to let the
> global environment export its contents, which could be one way to
> solve my first problem.
>
> I am unsure how this is intended to be used; what is the reason for
> not letting the global environment export anything by default? After
> all, you have to start somewhere... To attempt an alternative, I
> created a fresh environment for the classes that I want to import
> later under other names like so:
>
>     fsenv := Environment named: #FileSystem.
>     fspackage := PackageOrganizer default packageNamed: 'FS' ifAbsent: [].
>     fspackage classes do: [:ea | fsenv bind: ea name to: ea ]
>     fsenv importSelf.
>     fsenv exportSelf.
>     testenv := Environment named: #TestEnv1.
>     testenv importSelf.
>     testenv exportSelf.
>     testenv import: fsenv removingPrefix: 'FS'.
>     testenv valueOf: #Filesystem "=> FSFilesystem"
>
> Now I can use testenv valueOf: #Filesystem to retrieve the
> FSFilesystem class, so far so good. I have not used my testenv for
> anything real yet, but it is still missing all the basics such as
> Object or Array. So I doubt it will be of much use, unless I set up
> another environment to import from that contains all the Kernel,
> Collections etc. classes. But this does not feel right, as there
> already is such an environment: Smalltalk globals...
>
> In the post from 2012 for which Chris posted the link, Colin linked an
> image (and luckily, he has not removed it from his webspace since
> then) from which I could grab the browser opening snippet. It is
> simply
>
>     Browser fullOnClass: aClassDefinedInAnotherEnvironment
>
> ...which in my case gives me a browser for the global environment
> instead, because the "renamed" classes stem from there, of course.
>
> Frank's post also has another snippet to browse an environment:
>
>     b := Browser new
>       selectEnvironment: anEnvironment;
>       yourself.
>     Browser openBrowserView: (b openEditString: nil) label: b
> defaultBrowserTitle
>
> But it seems like the browser will only show an environment's own
> contents, not the imported classes. Hence, I do not see anything in my
> environments so far. If my assumption is correct, there is no way to
> see the imported classes under their new names in the browser.
>
> When I try to define a new class using my empty browser on my
> environment, it goes back into Smalltalk globals and puts the class
> there instead. It also does that in Colin's old image, so I guess
> defining classes in environments is not supported that way.
>
> More elaborate tools are probably required to easily see what is going
> on, without exploring the Environments implementation in parallel.
>
> [1] http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2013-December/175519.html
>
>
> 2016-09-23 11:59 GMT+02:00 Tobias Pape <Das.Linux at gmx.de>:
>> Hi Colin,
>>
>> do you have an idea here?
>>
>> Best regards
>>         -Tobias
>
> 2016-09-16 18:27 GMT+02:00 Chris Cunnington <brasspen at gmail.com>:
>>>Can I get a system browser for my environment (where saving a method
>>>compiles it with the environment bindings in place)?
>>
>> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2012-June/164605.html
>>
>> Chris
>
>>
>> On 16.09.2016, at 14:50, Jakob Reschke <jakob.reschke at student.hpi.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I am having a look at Environments, but have not yet figured out, how
>>> to operate them. I would like to create a new environment with an
>>> additional binding for an existing class under another name, and load
>>> a package in that new environment.
>>>
>>> The most of a documentation I have found is http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6220
>>> and I have tried the following so far:
>>>
>>> testenv := Environment named: #TestEnv1.
>>> testenv import: Smalltalk globals.
>>> testenv from: Smalltalk globals import: { #String -> #MyString }.
>>> testenv importSelf.
>>> testenv exportSelf.
>>>
>>> However, testenv valueOf: #MyString or testenv valueOf: #String both
>>> return nil instead of the String class. Does it mean that the
>>> from:import: did not work? It seems to only add a policy to my
>>> environment, but no declarations or bindings.
>>>
>>> For evaluating something in context of the environment, I have found
>>> the EnvironmentLoader, but it does not seem to recognize the
>>> additional binding either:
>>>
>>> (EnvironmentLoader for: testenv) evaluate: 'MyString'. => nil
>>> (EnvironmentLoader for: testenv) evaluate: 'String'. => nil
>>>
>>> (at least the import of the original globals seems to have worked).
>>>
>>> What steps am I missing?
>>>
>>> Also it is not very convenient to make up strings of code everytime I
>>> want to do something in the other environment, is there a better way?
>>> Can I get a system browser for my environment (where saving a method
>>> compiles it with the environment bindings in place)?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Jakob
>>>
>>


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