May 2016 - Pharo-dev - lists.pharo.org

Random is not random at startup
by Peter UhnÃ¡k May 23, 2016

May 23, 2016

Hi, (cc-ing Robert Withers as he seems to be working with cryptography and security... as this seems related and may have some implications, but I am likely wrong about the implications) yesterday I've encountered a very surprising behavior I executed the same script `10 atRandom` on the same image without saving it and got the same output: while true; do pharo-vm --nodisplay latest.image --no-default-preferences eval '10 atRandom' done 10 10 10 10 10 10 Not so randomâ¦ not random at all. Apparently the default random generator uses SharedRandom pool, that is initialized only onceâ¦ so every time you start an image you get the EXACT same random seed... I think this is stupid, and I am not sure what are the security implications of this (e.g. when opening an SSL connectionâ¦ having fixed world-wide initial seed seems like an awful, awful idea), but whateverâ¦ So instead I tried to explicitly specify the Random generatorâ¦ which I can do while true; do pharo-vm --nodisplay latest.image --no-default-preferences eval '10 atRandom: Random new' done 5 5 5 5 5 Still not randomâ¦ what? while true; do pharo-vm --nodisplay latest.image --no-default-preferences eval 'Random new instVarNamed: #seed' done 426306047 426305545 426305546 426306010 So the seed is different but thanks to the magic of masking the seed, I always get the same first several bitsâ¦ thus the same result for small numbers. So if I actually want what seems like a random valueâ¦ I have to at least once run the generatorâ¦ while true; do pharo-vm --nodisplay latest.image --no-default-preferences eval '10 atRandom: (Random new next; yourself)' done 7 3 4 9 6 7 Once I start to use it the properties of the algo kick in so it's pseudo-randomâ¦ but I need to run it once to initialize it, which is wtf. My questions: 1) do we really want to have global fixed seed? 2) Random new should actually setup a usable seed so I don't need to first run it N times before I can use the value 3) Should we switch to what UUIDGenerator is usingâ¦ reading /dev/urandom for the initial seed setup? Peter

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Using the stack and garbage collector?
by Alexandre Bergel May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

Hi! The following expression give me 102: -=â=-=-=â=-=-=â=-=-=â=-= old := Smalltalk vm parameterAt: 9. 15000 factorial. new := Smalltalk vm parameterAt: 9. new - old -=â=-=-=â=-=-=â=-=-=â=-= I find that surprising. Why is the garbage collector used if factorial solely use the stack? Cheers, Alexandre -- _,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;: Alexandre Bergel http://www.bergel.eu ^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;._,.;:~^~:;.

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weird tales about cursors and rectangle invalidations
by Esteban Lorenzano May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

Hi, Iâve been playing a bit today with something that is puzzling me and I need some more eyes in what Iâm doing, because it might be that Iâm understanding everything wrongâ¦ but if not, then, huston, we have a bug. So, play with meâ¦ you need to create this: SystemWindow subclass: #XSystemWindow instanceVariableNames: 'iteration' classVariableNames: '' package: âXXX' XSystemWindow>>initialize super initialize. iteration := 0. XSystemWindow>>drawOn: aCanvas âDo not use transcript because it does even more crazy stuff" Stdio stdout << (iteration := iteration + 1) asString; cr; lf. super drawOn: aCanvas Then execute this in a playground: XSystemWindow new addMorph: (RubScrolledTextModel new newScrolledText) fullFrame: LayoutFrame identity; openInWorld. and then you can watch in your stdout how full window redraws with cursor blinking (it stops when window loses focus). This happens because cursor is displayed with lapsus of 700ms and is just a draw of a line with a color who is set to itâs opposite each time. Then it does "color: shownColorâ and #color: sends #changed who finalise in #invalidRect. I always thought that this invalidation mechanism works by recording âdamaged areasâ, then collecting morphs with that area and triggering the redraw of that morph. With this in mind, cursor should trigger an invalidation of itâs own area (a small portion of the screen, as you can see). I could understand that a cursor triggers the text area redraw (but that would be a âdesign flawâ, IMO)â¦ now, what I cannot understand is why blink a cursor triggers the redraw of a FULL WINDOW. When in Nautilus, that means each cursor blink triggers the redraw of one tree, four lists, some buttons and finally, the text area. IMO, this is not acceptable. What do you think? Esteban

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About Smalltalk ui icons...
by stepharo May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

loadConfigurationButton: aList <menu> aList act: [ :presenter | self onLoadFrom: presenter ] icon: Smalltalk ui icons configIcon entitled: 'Load configuration (do not install project)' why we could not have something like loadConfigurationButton: aList <menu> aList act: [ :presenter | self onLoadFrom: presenter ] icon: #configIcon entitled: 'Load configuration (do not install project)' and the class knows how to fetch it?

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Turning off Spotter using internet!
by stepharo May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

Hi guys This is hyper annoying that Spotter look for the net by default. We should turn it off. We should also improve the comment of the catalog setting because it is unclear that this is this setting that should be turned off. Stef

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the fastest way to load external code
by Tudor Girba May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

Hi, I am looking for ways to make loading of code from an st file faster. To this end, I would like to find in-image mechanisms that are not mandatory for obtaining a functional image. For example, one place I look at is SystemAnnouncer uniqueInstance, and I know that I should have no Nautilus open and that I can disable Renraku and GTExample: ReRuleManager uniqueInstance unsubscribe. GTExampleOrganizer instance stopSystemAnnouncements. What else do you see around? Cheers, Doru -- www.tudorgirba.com www.feenk.com "Don't give to get. Just give."

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New Success Story: Sysmocom: Free Software for Mobile Communication
by Marcus Denker May 22, 2016

May 22, 2016

Sysmocom: Free Software for Mobile Communication http://pharo.org/success/Sysmocom "Sysmocom is a leading provider of Free Software Mobile Communication solutions. In 2012 we have started a long term project to develop a complete ASN1, TCAP, MAP, CAP, GSN stack using the Pharo Object Environment. We have decided to use Pharo because of the increased productivity, the great tooling, the live inspection and if necessary modification of a running system to deploy a critical bugfix. Pharo has allowed us to focus on what is important. The stack was used to uncover security and privacy issues inherent to the MAP protocol design in 2014/2015. We have used the stack to build a carrier-grade AuthenticationCenter (AuC) and helped a customer to move their production traffic off a proprietary system to ours. We look forward to move a HomeLocationRegister (HLR) into production this year. said Holger Freyther CEO."

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TEXT drag and drop
by lb May 21, 2016

May 21, 2016

Hi, I have made a little tool for draging and dropping text selection. like windows Word. It can work in Pharo 40 50 and 60. Have a fun! LiangBing MCHttpRepository location: 'http://www.smalltalkhub.com/mc/liangbing/Text-DragDrop/main' user: '' password: ''

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how to swallow a syntax error?
by Tudor Girba May 21, 2016

May 21, 2016

Hi, I am having trouble making the compiler not be interactive when it encounters a syntax error. To reproduce the problem I attach here an .st file that has a funny character in the method name. If I file this in, like: âAAA.stâ asFileReference fileIn. I get a Syntax Error dialog. I would like to avoid that. After diving in, I noticed that I can tell the requestor of the CodeImporter to not be interactive, but that does not seem to have an effect: 'AAA.st' asFileReference readStreamDo: [ :s | importer := CodeImporter fileStream: s. importer requestor interactive: false. importer evaluateDeclarations ] I also tried to play on the end of the SyntaxErrorDebugger, and replace it with something that logs the exception, but I was not successful because that one is expected to return a string that can be compiled. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Cheers, Doru -- www.tudorgirba.com www.feenk.com "Every now and then stop and ask yourself if the war you're fighting is the right one."

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Should we updated UpdatedPharoByExample for Pharo 5?
by Cyril Ferlicot D. May 21, 2016

May 21, 2016

Currently all issues are opened to update PBE for Pharo4. Since Pharo5 is out should we give up on Pharo4 version and focus on Pharo5? Since we don't have enough man power to do both I think we should just tag the current version with a Pharo4 tag even if everything is not up to date and begin to adapt it for Pharo5. -- Cyril Ferlicot http://www.synectique.eu 165 Avenue Bretagne Lille 59000 France

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