[Vm-dev] Best and latest VMs for Open Cobalt release?

[John M McIntosh]

On 14-Feb-09, at 10:49 AM, ed.boyce at duke.edu wrote:

>
> Everyone,
>
>   Open Cobalt (http://opencobalt.org -- based on Open Croquet) is  
> nearing its
> public alpha release.  We would like to ship Open Cobalt with the most
> up-to-date VM possible on Mac, Linux and Windows, preferably at the  
> same
> version on each.  Ideally, that would probably mean 3.10.4 on every  
> platform.


For the macintosh that would be the 3.8.21beta1U VM
You should consider the SparklePlugin so you can push application  
bundle updates to people if you wish.

If you are making a one-click application then you should consider if  
you need to change

(a) the document types information
(b) the name of the executable
(c) the get info string, perhaps retain the VM version number
(d) the icon file
(e) the bundle identifier, name, OS Type, verson string, creator, &  
version
(f) Drop the Services unless you want to offer your app in the  
Services menu
(g) SqueakImageName is ?
(h)  SqueakMaxHeapSize is ? (512MB, bigger? smaller?)
(i) The SqueakTrustedDirectory & SqueakUnTrustedDirectory
(j) SqueakEncodingType  is that application macroman or does it really  
understand UTF-8 file names? Most vertical apps opt for
UTF-8 after they have ensured any broken file name translation code in  
the image has been purged.

Retain the PGP signature for the binary  Squeak VM Opt.sig, if you  
rename the binary you can rename the signature.
If you build your own VM you can discard it.

For the plugins
Which plugin are required is up to the application team's decision,  
they all require Smalltalk code

CroquetPlugin.bundle		- no idea what is current
FloatMathPlugin.bundle		- no idea what is current

Usually these are required, check your smalltalk code, and ftp.smalltalkconsulting.com 
  for any updates

FT2Plugin.bundle			- FreeType font support
LocalePlugin.bundle			- Locale support, some images use this to get  
things like the http proxy used.
SqueakFFIPrims.bundle		- FFI interace
UnixOSProcessPlugin.bundle	- OSProcess interface

These are optional macintosh specific

PrintJobPlugin.bundle		- ProjectJob interface (macintosh print dialogs)
QuicktimePlugin.bundle		- Quicktime interface for Sophie (optional for  
sophie)
ServicesPlugin.bundle		- Services menu interface
SpellingPlugin.bundle		- Spelling interface (macintosh spelling api)
TestOSAPlugin.bundle		- AppleScript interface
ClipboardExtendedPlugin.bundle  - This is the extended clipboard  
support for cut/copy/paste of UTF8 between squeak and elsewhere
ObjectiveCPlugin.bundle		- Yet another Objective-C bridge


Optional plugins, supported on other platforms.

SparklePlugin.bundle			- Sparkle is an API that lets you push  
application updates to clients, used by many mac applications now
mpeg3Plugin.bundle			- The historically old MP3 support, see Sophie  
media support for much better solution.
CurlPlugin.bundle			- Do you need Curl support?
OggPlugin.bundle			- Do you need Ogg?
RomePlugin.bundle			- Do you need the Rome api that fronts FreeType?
IA32ABI.bundle				- Support for Alien
KedamaPlugin.bundle		- eToys
KedamaPlugin2.bundle		- eToys
OpenALPlugin.bundle		- OpenAL support
SerialExtendedUnixPlugin.bundle - Extended Serial port support


Icon files, which do you need, or do you have replacements?
Squeak.icns
SqueakChanges.icns
SqueakGeneric.icns
SqueakImage.icns
SqueakPlugin.icns
SqueakProject.icns
SqueakScript.icns
SqueakSources.icns

Technically if you want some other file type for image files you might  
need to code a UTI  in the info.plist

--
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John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com>
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd.  http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com
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