March 2026 - Pharo-dev - lists.pharo.org

new vm implementation results
by xphu＠awohl.com April 20, 2026

April 20, 2026

PharoSmalltalk with a new VM is now in the Apple App Store for iPad (primary), iPhone, and Mac as https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pharosmalltalk/id6759073615. It runs the latest Pharo 13 image. Source https://github.com/avwohl/iospharo During development, 10 issues came up that seem to be best handled with image changes, see https://github.com/avwohl/iospharo/blob/main/docs/upstream-proposals.md I could use advice or review on how to proceed with these issues. This started when, on a cruise, I sat down on a beach chair with LEARN PHARO and an iPad and found there wasnât a Pharo. I have a background in compiler construction, but am newish to Smalltalk.

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[IWST'26] Call for Presentations
by Guillermo Polito March 20, 2026

March 20, 2026

Dear all, Submissions are now invited for the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies (IWST 2026), to be held in conjunction with ESUG. IWST serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of work related to Smalltalk and closely related technologies, covering both research contributions and practical experiences. The workshop emphasizes interaction and is particularly well suited for presenting work in progress, emerging ideas, and experience reports. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * code analysis, testing, and debugging * compilers, virtual machines, and language implementation * tools, frameworks, and libraries * meta-programming, refactoring, and design patterns * industrial experience and case studies * integration with other languages and ecosystems Submissions for presentation take the form of extended abstracts (up to 2 pages). This allows authors to present ongoing or preliminary work without requiring a full paper at this stage. In addition, presentations of relevant work published within the past two years are welcome. Authors of accepted contributions will be invited to submit an extended version (short or full paper) for inclusion in the post-workshop proceedings. **Important dates:** * Extended abstract submission deadline: March 20, 2026 (AoE) Submissions should be made via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iwst2026 Further details are available in the full call for submissions: https://conf.researchr.org/track/iwst-2026/iwst-2026-papers#Call-for-Submis… Kind regards, Guille, Gordana and Nahuel

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[COLA Special ISSUE] Call for Papers
by Guillermo Polito March 20, 2026

March 20, 2026

Dear all, Submissions are now invited for the Special Issue on *Smalltalk Technologies*, to be published by Elsevier on ScienceDirect. This special issue aims to collect high-quality contributions related to the design, implementation, and use of Smalltalk and closely related technologies. It provides an opportunity to present mature research results, as well as consolidated extensions of previously published or presented work in this area. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: * programming languages and language design * virtual machines, compilers, and runtime systems * software analysis, testing, and debugging * development tools and environments * meta-programming and reflective systems * software evolution and maintenance * industrial applications and experience reports * interoperability with other languages and ecosystems Submissions are expected to present original and unpublished work, or substantially extended versions of prior publications, in line with standard journal requirements for special issues. In particular, extended submissions should include significant new material beyond any previously published version. All submissions will undergo a peer-review process in accordance with the journalâs standards. Further details regarding submission guidelines, important dates, and the review process can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/331473/smalltalk-technologies Kind regards, Guille, Gordana, Nahuel

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"Steps for Interaction with Spec Presenters in Hera â New blog post on all: objects all: theTime
by Koen De Hondt March 14, 2026

March 14, 2026

Dear Pharo users and developers, I posted a third article in the series about describing Spec application behaviour with Hera. The first post explained how Hera manages open Spec windows. The second post explained how Hera identifies presenters so they can be referenced in Gherkin scenarios. This post explains how Hera expresses steps to interact with Spec presenters. https://all-objects-all-the-time.st/#/blog/posts/22 As always, all feedback is welcome. Happy reading! Ciao, Koen

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[ANN] Soil version 4
by Norbert Hartl March 12, 2026

March 12, 2026

We are happy to announce the availability of Soil version 4. What is new? Indexes (both skip list and Btree+) now have forward and backward pointer (those have been added) so there is new possibilities to have indexes that are traversable in each direction. This needed to be done in a not backward-compatible way. All databases prior to v4 need to be migrated. A migration procedure is available at https://github.com/ApptiveGrid/Soil/blob/main/docs/versions/migration.md The indexes prior to v4 have been implemented closely to the interface and behavior of a Dictionary. We've added support for duplicated keys which is necessary when doing secondary indexes. A lot of the changes in v4 are regarding to that because it changed quite a bit how things work. NOTE: duplicate keys are considered a preview in v4. They should be usable but might need to settle a bit more. Until now there is no feature supported making use of duplicated keys. Indexes have unique keys as default. They resemble the old behavior and should just work as before journals are now used by a transaction right from the start and creates it while the code operates on it. This way we could remove all brittle intermediate dictionaries like newValues, removedValues in the handling which improved the code a lot There is a first version of read-only transactions where one can make sure every attempt to write to the database should end up in an error There is also a first version of a graph exporter and importer. This can export a graph on the database level which works even if the application code is not present. This is useful for copying or moving a sub-graph from one database to another in an efficient way. There are plenty of code cleanups and performance improvements. The more detailled view can be seen here: https://github.com/ApptiveGrid/Soil/blob/main/docs/versions/changelog-v4.md What is planned for v5? Multi-index collection. This resembles what most other database have. You have one list of objects but multiple indexes to the same data in order to speed up search for different use cases partial indexes. These is a special kind of view to a database index. It consists of a predicate and stores only the elements that pass the predicate. Searching is way faster and things like size are almost for free windows support. There has been a PR provided https://github.com/ApptiveGrid/Soil/pull/980 which needs to be fixed as the way soil handles streams is not compatible with windows If all goes well we will remove the need for the markDirty: calls completely. Cluster modification tracking will then be automatic and removes a huge annoyance when using soil Hope you like it. Give it a spin and then tell us! Norbert & Marcus

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Fwd: New releases: Bloc:v2.8.0, Toplo:v0.9.0 and more
by stephane ducasse March 12, 2026

March 12, 2026

> Begin forwarded message: > > From: LABORDE Pierre <pierre.laborde(a)fr.thalesgroup.com> > Subject: RE: New releases: Bloc:v2.8.0, Toplo:v0.9.0 and more > Date: 12 March 2026 at 09:27:11 CET > To: MartÃn Dias <tinchodias(a)gmail.com>, lse-openbloc <lse-openbloc(a)inria.fr> > Reply-To: LABORDE Pierre <pierre.laborde(a)fr.thalesgroup.com> > > De : lse-openbloc-request(a)inria.fr <mailto:lse-openbloc-request@inria.fr> <lse-openbloc-request(a)inria.fr <mailto:lse-openbloc-request@inria.fr>> De la part de MartÃn Dias > EnvoyÃ© : jeudi 12 mars 2026 02:01 > Ã : lse-openbloc <lse-openbloc(a)inria.fr <mailto:lse-openbloc@inria.fr>> > Objet : New releases: Bloc:v2.8.0, Toplo:v0.9.0 and more > > Hello! the following are the new releases in Bloc/Toplo projects: > > Bloc v2.8.0 <https://github.com/pharo-graphics/Bloc/releases/tag/v2.8.0> > â¢ Fix code styling error in Pharo 14 by @tinchodias in #839 > â¢ Move TBlLayoutResizable to Bloc-Layouts-Support package by @plantec in #834 > â¢ Fix deprecated message send by @tinchodias in #845 > â¢ Send #waitTimeoutMilliseconds: instead of #wait: to Semaphore by @tinchodias in #847 > â¢ Generate baseline with explicit requirements to avoid loading warnings by @tinchodias in #832 > > Toplo v0.9.0 <https://github.com/pharo-graphics/Toplo/releases/tag/v0.9.0> > â¢ Circular menu by @plantec in #368 > â¢ List hierarchy refactoring by @plantec in #360 > â¢ Move defaultNodeFactory to the root abtract class by @plantec in #358 > â¢ Finite data source manager ng by @plantec in #362 > â¢ Simplified node configuration by @plantec in #363 > â¢ List node configuration by @plantec in #365 > â¢ Checkbox selection refactoring by @plantec in #366 > â¢ Improved ToInfiniteListElementEventHandler to fixe selection update iâ¦ by @plantec in #367 > â¢ Make #class: and #iconImageFor: on ToExMiniBrowserClassNodeContent use the FormSet for each of the icons by @Rinzwind in #329 > â¢ Investigating list selection management by @plantec in #370 > â¢ Fix some circular dependencies by @tinchodias in #371 > > Spec-Toplo v0.9.0 <x-msg://28/Spec-Toplo/releases/tag/v0.9.0> > â¢ Diff adapter, begin miler layout, fix selection tree table by @badetitou in #46 > â¢ Improve Code Editor by @badetitou in #47 > â¢ Toplo file selector by @badetitou in #49 > â¢ Add keyshortcut to main window by @badetitou in #50 > â¢ Improve small aspect issue by @badetitou in #51 > â¢ Miller layout by @badetitou in #52 > â¢ Little cleanups by @tinchodias in #53 > â¢ Fix to do list demo by @tinchodias in #81 > â¢ Add a Spec adapter for SpBlocPresenter to the Morphic backend by @tinchodias in #83 > â¢ Load proper group of Roassal by @tinchodias in #86 > â¢ Load Roassal package not baseline by @tinchodias in #88 > > Alexandrie v2.8.0 <https://github.com/pharo-graphics/Alexandrie/releases/tag/v2.8.0> > â¢ Add binding for hb_version_atleast and use it by @tinchodias in #121 > â¢ Cairo context's #newContextDo: initialize the surface > > Album v0.9.0 <https://github.com/pharo-graphics/Albumv0.9.0> > â¢ Few changes needed by Toplo by @plantec in #54 > â¢ Add AlbEditorElement>>lineIndexAtTextIndex: by @plantec > â¢ fixes #infiniteDo: to return the result of the block > â¢ Remove TBlLayoutResizable uses since it is used by BlElement > â¢ The cursor was not blinking by default > > PharoSDL3 <https://github.com/pharo-graphics/PharoSDL3/releases/tag/v0.0.2> > 102 commits in 2026: https://github.com/pharo-graphics/PharoSDL3/compare/964543a2cd6ac278fd208c3… > > > Best regards, > MartÃn

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