Hi all --

There are been a minor hold-up bc. of the graphics backends in OSVM for the macOS platform.

On the one hand, there are some smaller tweaks needed for high-resolution displays.

On the other hand, the "-core-graphics" backend is not working in recent macOS 10, 11, or 12. And the "-metal" backend (current default) is limiting performance in a normal Morphic image to 60 fps/Hz, which causes stuttering when interfering with GC pauses and/or other Squeak processes (e.g., WeakArray finalizer). You can verify this by enabling #higherPerformance, which reduces the extra delay in the Morphic UI process to almost nothing. The FrameRateMorph should then show something like 200 FPS but only does 60.

Working on this now.

Best,
Marcel
Am 14.03.2022 17:01:41 schrieb Marcel Taeumel <marcel.taeumel at hpi.de>:
Hi all --

Let me give you a brief update on the Squeak 6.0 release plan. :-)

During the last 8 weeks, I worked on Squeak's localization capabilities, which includes loading and displaying TrueType fonts, modeling Locale and language information, as well as finding a way to not have to deal with line breaks in dialog/ui texts, which would be challenging for natural-language translators (both kinds, persons and machines^^).

All that works now in a good-enough fashion. Yay. :-)

I will now look at the workflow to update our translation files (i.e., the "locale" folder in all bundles). Then I will report back and ask for volunteers. :-D

Best,
Marcel
Am 18.01.2022 16:56:00 schrieb Marcel Taeumel <marcel.taeumel at hpi.de>:
Hi all --

I suppose that many readers have noticed by now that we are currently preparing the next Squeak release. A few weeks ago, I volunteered for being the next release manager. Until now, I have been rather reluctant to make any concrete remarks on when the release will happen. Let me use the following lines to give you a brief update.

The OpenSmalltalk VM looks good. We have our second release candidate and will hopefully make a third one soon. Our daily Trunk bundles include that OSVM RC2 already:
- http://files.squeak.org/trunk/
- https://github.com/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/releases/tag/202112201228
- http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/2022-January/037533.html

The Trunk image is doing well. Maybe we can do our traditional "Feature Freeze" in the beginning of February. Before proposing a concrete schedule, I want to finish assessing a few higher-effort things including:
- Objectland (http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2019-October/204437.html)
- Localization (English, German, French, ...)
- Jaromir's latest efforts around process scheduling
- Eric's latest efforts around GIFReadWriter
- Current state of ClipboardExtendedPlugin
- Current state of IPv6

Other than that, I plan for announcing the upcoming "Feature Freeze" about 2 weeks in advance. Then we enter our beta-testing phase, in which I will make our latest "60Deprecated" package opt-in instead of opt-out (using the preference wizard). Then, about 1-2 weeks later if all goes well, I will update the .sources file of our final release candidate to SqueakV60.sources, package the release and open the Trunk for features again. :-) Next Trunk version will be 6.1alpha (using 61Deprecated for new deprecations).

Let us all work together to make Squeak 6.0 being worth its increased major version number:
- Report issues
- Fix failing tests
- Make you favorite projects compatible

Thanks! :-) Happy squeaking!

Best,
Marcel
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