January 2015 - Pharo-dev - lists.pharo.org

[pharo-project/pharo-core]
by GitHub Jan. 5, 2015

Jan. 5, 2015

Branch: refs/tags/40429 Home: https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-core

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WhatsUp from: 2015-01-05 until: 2015-01-18
by seaside＠rmod.lille.inria.fr Jan. 5, 2015

Jan. 5, 2015

Hi! We're sending this automatic email twice a month, to give the community an opportunity to easily know what's happening and to coordinate efforts. Just answer informally, and feel free to spawn discussions thereafter! ### Here's what I've been up to since the last WhatsUp: - $HEROIC_ACHIEVEMENTS_OR_DISMAL_FAILURES_OR_SIMPLE_BORING_NECESSARY_TASKS ### What's next, until 2015-01-18 (*): - $NEXT_STEPS_TOWARDS_WORLD_DOMINATION (*) we'll be expecting results by then ;)

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CubeHelix integration (issue 14648 in update #40423)
by Torsten Bergmann Jan. 5, 2015

Jan. 5, 2015

What is the reasons for integration of class "CubeHelix" into standard Pharo image: https://pharo.fogbugz.com/f/cases/14648 So far the class is not (yet) referenced. Would'nt it make sense to have "Chroma-CubeHelix" as external loadable package? Thanks for any clarification! Bye T.

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My New Year present to Pharo
by kilon alios Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

Happy new year pharoers , I wish health and hapiness to all of you . Secretly these past few month I have been working on a 3d graphics wallpaper for Pharo. Finally I manage to create something worthy for Pharo which I present now to you This an actual lighthouse which is located in the Greek island of Andros. Its small, elegant and beautiful like Pharo ;) More info can be found here http://www.amazingplacesonearth.com/tourlitis-lighthouse-andros-island-gree… I release this image under CC license , you are welcome to use it anywhere you like as long as you credit me and even in commercial projects , completely free . You can also modify and redistribute it in any way again as long as you credit me. I hope you like it , I definitely had fun creating it :) PS: I also added it as attachment in case the inlining does not work â

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Re: [Pharo-dev] The Smalltalk Renaissance Program
by Ben Coman Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

On Thursday, January 1, 2015, Ben Coman wrote: > I refer to the two paragraphs following "On pharo being a new language". > I think Sven's response addressed these the best. > > Now I wonder if a history of evolving features from Smalltalk-72 "in the > context of Pharo" being another step of evolution would be a useful > addition to the Pharo story. > > Cheers -Ben > > On Wednesday, December 31, 2014, horrido <horrido.hobbies(a)gmail.com > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','horrido.hobbies(a)gmail.com');>> wrote: > >> Thank you very much. So please explain how the PR message is not aligned >> with >> the technical vision. I don't see any inconsistency. >> >> >> >> Ben Coman wrote >> > On Wednesday, December 31, 2014, Ben Coman wrote: >> > >> >> >> >> >> >> On Wednesday, December 31, 2014, horrido < >> >> > horrido.hobbies@ >> >> > > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',' >> >> > horrido.hobbies@ >> >> > ');>> wrote: >> >> >> >>> And, yes, I did not do my most thorough homework regarding Pharo, as >> >>> several >> >>> of you have pointed out. Frankly, I don't have /that/ much time and >> >>> energy. >> >>> I'm old and retired. I'm just doing this for pleasure. >> >>> >> >>> So I rely on /you/ to set me straight. >> >> >> >> >> >> In process :) >> >> >> >> >> >>> I remind you that I'm just the >> >>> coordinator of the campaign, because I'm sure none of you have that >> much >> >>> time to do what I'm doing. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> >> >>> Marcus suggested that anyone can create a Google+ page, but he misses >> >>> the >> >>> point. The Google+ page is just one brick in the foundation of the >> >>> campaign. >> >>> It's part of a whole. >> >>> >> >>> Norbert suggests that I think I know what to do. No, I have ideas and >> I >> >>> have >> >>> a plan. There's no guarantee that it will work. Either you buy into my >> >>> plan, >> >>> or you don't. Either I have your support, or I don't. If the latter, I >> >>> shan't waste any more time (yours or mind). >> >>> >> >>> >> >> >> >> It's not just a matter of time, but inclination. If you are inclined >> to >> >>> do this, then it should be supported - but it's a matter of getting >> the >> >>> PR message aligned with the technical vision. We don't want the >> market >> >>> being told one thing then getting a different message here in-list. >> So >> >>> you made a misstep here. That's okay, you learn more that way than >> doing >> >>> nothing. It may take some more back-n-forth. I hope you continue. >> >> >> >> >> >> -Ben >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://forum.world.st/The-Smalltalk-Renaissance-Program-tp4797112p4797416.h… >> Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Developers mailing list archive at >> Nabble.com. >> >>

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[story] using the inspector to debug a metacello configuration problem
by Tudor Girba Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

Hi, Happy New Year! The GTInspector reaches its full potential when it is being extended to meet custom needs. I will try to document more scenarios to show how this works in practice and how programming changes as a result. Here is a story that describes a session of debugging a Metacello configuration problem: http://www.humane-assessment.com/blog/identifying-a-configuration-problem-w… Cheers, Doru -- www.tudorgirba.com "Every thing has its own flow"

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HandMorph.EventStats
by Ben Coman Jan. 3, 2015

Jan. 3, 2015

Looking at HandMorph>>logEventStats: this is the only method to reference EventStats variable. Should we zero these values as part of release process? cheers -ben

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New Cog VMs available
by Eliot Miranda Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

...at http://www.mirandabanda.org/files/Cog/VM/VM.r3205/. Happy New Year! CogVM source as per VMMaker.oscog-eem.1008/r3205 Send cannotReturn for sideways return attemps when there's an unwind-protect. Old code would erroneously answer unwind-protect even if home could'nt be found. e.g. This should raise cannot return: | b | b := [ ^ 42 ]. [ [b value] ensure: [1] ] fork. Processor yield just as this does: | b | b := [ ^ 42 ]. [ b value ] fork. Processor yield Speed up non-local return processing by using the fact that 98% of the time returns are within the same page. The search for the home context following finding an unwind is unnecessary iff the home is married and on the same page. Refactor commonReturn to eiminate CoInterpreter's version, moving the divergence into maybeReturnToMachineCodeFrame. Ensure search for home through the block's closure uses followField:ofObject:. (related) Revisit the Sista bug fix for followed contexts during scavenging in VMMaker.oscog-eem.913 of 24 October 2014. Split isWidowedContext: into a more careful version, isWidowedContextDuringGC: for use only during scavenging. Win32: Nuke obsolete RCS vrsion info Spur: Fix argument count slips in three primitives. Check for sufficient memory in two-way become. All: Fix checking of boolean arg in primitiveArrayBecomeOneWayCopyHash. Make primitiveSlotAt[Put] cope with non-pointer objects. Change the pixel-touch-pixel prim to allow LPI arguments for the color values Update the ScratchPlugin bilinear scaling prim to include the correct alpha channel value for non-transparent output pixels. No longer build or upload the Newspeak V3 VMs, now superseded by Spur. Use the gcc/clang built-ins for CAS and atomic increment if available. -- best, Eliot

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Is immutability on Pharo's roadmap?
by Sebastian Sastre Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

Sorry for the naive question but Iâm seeing an avalanche of interest in functional programming and many there uses immutability as foundation. So I wonder whatâs our position on that way of working? Does Pharo have immutability in its roadmap at any point? Do you find it valuable?

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Cog in the cloud
by Ben Coman Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

Just some thoughts that arose as I skipped along the web... With the idea of using Pharo in the cloud, I was thinking of how PharoNOS[1] is basing off top of the Linux kernel, but the examples indicate its operating in User Mode. So I was wondering about performance being greater[2] if the CogVM ran in Kernel Mode. However maybe this could get tangled in the GPL license of the kernel. Now I believe FreeBSD/NetBSD license is compatible with COG's MIT license, so that seems a better option for eliminating layers of the operating system. They both[3][4] have pre-built Amazon Machine Images to run on EC2, as well as instructions[5] to build your own AMI. So potentially we could build an AMI with the CogVM linked to the FreeBSDKernel operating in Kernel Mode, with no User Mode. The lack of direct access to memory from the Image, and probably single application focus should be sufficient security to forgo User Mode, and run faster. But we could go a step further. Runing in the cloud relies heavily on virtualisation, and for performance[6], most likely on the OS's paravirtualisation interface - to Xen for example. So from Cog, why not interface direct to the Xen FrontEndDriver[7] and eliminate the DomU operating system all together. What I understand from [6] is that Xen's paravirtualisation hooks makes it much easier to boot, than booting on the bare metal of a fully-virtualised system. So the former seems more achievable than the latter (which was the only option in years past), and also be more portable as technology evolves, to any platform Xen runs on. Squeak/Pharo on Cog-Xen could be a good choice for a Cloud Operating System[8]. Maybe a good student research project? cheers -ben [1] http://pillarhub.pharocloud.com/hub/mikefilonov/pharonos [2] http://blog.codinghorror.com/understanding-user-and-kernel-mode/ [3] http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/ [4] http://wiki.netbsd.org/amazon_ec2/amis/ [5] http://wiki.netbsd.org/amazon_ec2/build_your_own_ami/ [6] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Virtualization_Spectrum [7] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/FrontendDriver [8] http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Cloud_Operating_Systems

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