December 2010 - Pharo-users

"Making ToolSet more flexible", any taker?
by Mariano Martinez Peck Dec. 14, 2010

Dec. 14, 2010

Hi guys. I am out of time, but if someone wants to do a nice and not so difficult contribution to Pharo, is to improve the ToolSet support. Issue is here: http://code.google.com/p/pharo/issues/detail?id=1915 And discussion is here: http://forum.world.st/Questions-about-ToolSet-td1460544.html Cheers Mariano

3 2

DBXPlatform on Pharo
by flebber Dec. 13, 2010

Dec. 13, 2010

Sorry this is a newbie question. I am trying to install squeakdbx on pharo 1.1. I have evaluated Gofer new squeaksource: 'MetacelloRepository'; package: 'ConfigurationOfFFI'; load. and Gofer new squeaksource: 'MetacelloRepository'; package: 'ConfigurationOfSqueakDBX'; load. from the pharo page http://www.squeakdbx.org/news http://www.squeakdbx.org/news it says to evaluate DBXPlatform disableAutomaticConnectionReleaseOnGC However evaluating this gives me an error. unknown Variable DBXplatform. What am I doing wrong. -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/DBXPlatform-on-Pharo-tp3085025p3085025.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

2 1

Keyboard shortcuts
by Daniel Klein Dec. 12, 2010

Dec. 12, 2010

I have discovered a bunch of keyboard shortcuts on my own but is there someplace I can find a full list? A specific shortcut that would really be convenient is to be able to switch between Pharo 'morphs', like how I do with alt+tab on Windows. For example, I'm always switching between a workspace and the system browser. I'd like not to have to reach for the mouse each time. Is there such a beast? Dan

4 5

SandstoneDB and SortedCollection
by David Zmick Dec. 11, 2010

Dec. 11, 2010

I have a User that hold a Collection of decisions. Each decision holds a sorted collection of candidates and a sorted collection of objectives. User is a subclass of SDActiveRecord. I have class side code to create and example user with an example decision. this code fails with "Error: This message is not appropriate for this object" u := User example. u save This is what is at the very top of the debugging output: SortedCollection(Object)>>error: SortedCollection(Object)>>shouldNotImplement SortedCollection>>at:put: [] in SortedCollection(SequenceableCollection)>>sandstoneDeepCopyVisits: I am not sure where to go from here. Thank you for any help you might have! David Zmick /dz0004455\

3 5

Feature requests
by andres Dec. 10, 2010

Dec. 10, 2010

Ok, so here goes an attempt of defining how I think feature requests could be handled and why I think that the meritocracy is not always the best choice. UserVoice and similar sites The idea is to let people ask for features they want in a quick way. I think my question about native window support could be a good example: someone ask if a feature exists. If it doesn't, he can just go and record somewhere "hey, I would like X". If other people also want X they can put a vote (or more than one) into the feature. Since votes are finite per user you have to think where are you putting your vote. Generally the product owner would choose some of the top ranked requests and decide to implement them. How many requests are selected per release or what is the criteria for choosing them is up to the product owner (e.g. you may choose #1 and #3 in the ranking, since #2 may be too complex for a given release). I guess that as long as the rules are clear (e.g. choose at least 1 feature request from the top five or whatever the dev team feels is ok for them) things would run smooth. Of course you can consider alternatives, like giving contributors more votes to encourage participation, get an extra vote for each bug you found, etc. Advantages: Its easy, it welcomes newcomers, it allows to re-think your vote or change it if you see that someone posted a feature that you also require, it allows the dev team to measure the user's expectations. Disadvantages: if you don't have enough population the requests may not reflect the real community needs, as a dev team you may end up implementing something you don't consider relevant. About Meritocracy While I understand the idea behind "first do something, then ask for something" I don't think it is always the best choice. For someone to commit to do something he must feel he is inside a community, and that takes some time. Of course I'm not saying that someone who just downloaded Pharo should dictate what will be included in the next release, I'm just saying that his voice shouldn't be banned because he hasn't yet contributed. And I am convinced that it is more likely to have a newcomer commited to a cause if you listen to him rather than if you say "first do something, then I may listen to your requests". But what concerned me the most was this: The only influence we deeply understand is ***Contributions*** with either videos, pdf, ads, promotion actions or ST code. So if you want something to happen for real in pharo then you should consider how you can make this happens. So how do you measure someone's contribution and the rights he has? Talking about pharo at my university counts for changing a line of code, writing some slides for a method, creating a bunch of screencasts for some classes? Also, contributing to Smalltalk in general counts as a contribution to Pharo? Up to what extent? And if I contributed and you never knew? Should I present my credentials asking for your reconsideration? My point is that, while contributions are fine and I also like for people to give in return for what they received, it is sometimes hard to measure and be fair to everybody. As you explained it seems that the decision rests in the subjective view of the core developers. That model is of course a valid one, I just consider it is not how healthy communities are built. Best regards, AndrÃ©s

13 26

IRC meeting notes
by Adrian Lienhard Dec. 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010

This evening the announced IRC meeting took place. I've published the notes as a blog post on our website: http://pharo-project.org/news?article=irc-meeting-notes Cheers, Adrian ___________________ http://www.adrian-lienhard.ch/

2 1

Native Windows in Pharo
by andres Dec. 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010

Hi list! I think I finally can start a small in-house project in Pharo, which makes me quite happy since I've been willing to do so for some time now. I have however to solve an issue before: is there a way of using native windows instead of the emulated ones? The app I have to work on is pretty much based on having different independent windows floating around :( . I saw the Native Windows thread that dates back to 2009 and couldn't find more information on the subject, so any pointers are much appreciated. Thanks in advance! AndrÃ©s

7 20

Fastest matrix implementation?
by HernÃ¡n Morales Durand Dec. 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010

Hi list In the context of a scientific project here we are building big matrices for later processing, mostly exporting to custom file formats for PLINK, HaploView, etc (bioinformatics tools). I've tested one of our scripts in both Pharo 1.1 (not CogVM) with the corresponding Python 2.6 implementation (without PyPy), and the performance in Python was superior, about 8x faster than ST. So I wonder if anyone knows the fastest (or a faster) implementation of Matrix than the included by default in Collections? Cheers, -- HernÃ¡n Morales Information Technology Manager, Institute of Veterinary Genetics. National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Telephone: +54 (0221) 421-1799. Internal: 422 Fax: 425-7980 or 421-1799.

4 8

Re: [Pharo-users] Fastest matrix implementation?
by HernÃ¡n Morales Durand Dec. 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010

Hi Benoit, Thanks for your suggestions! I did some metrics again with a subset of my files with fewer lines, and here are the results Lines Milliseconds 116 59 2784 1415 63936 18675 175840 48216 534760 149812 After implementing your improvements: Lines Milliseconds 116 44 2784 1067 63936 13991 175840 37521 534760 112906 Since I can assume my CSV files doesn't include quotes, I've removed the qouted character checking subclassing a special parser for files with qoutes: Lines Milliseconds 116 37 2784 888 63936 11521 175840 31905 534760 96549 which is an acceptable improvement considering files of millions of lines. If I can make some time for implementing a primitive, I will update with more results. Best regards, 2010/12/7 Benoit St-Jean <bstjean(a)hotmail.ca>: > Hi Hernan, > > I had a look at the Text Parser package and here's a little suggestion... > > In class STextParser, there seems to be place for optimization (I know, I > *hate* using this word with Smalltalk, I've always preferred simplicity over > harder-to-read-code) in one particular method, namely #nextInLine. > > A quick test in a workspace shows that removing message sends for methods > #cr and #lf (making the class variables instead) as well as using #== > instead of #= make this method 3 to 5 times faster.Â Since it's probably > called millions and millions of times in your case, this might help... > > So it would look like: > > nextInLine > Â Â Â | next | > > Â Â Â next := stream next. > Â Â Â (next == MyCr or: [next == MyLf]) > Â Â Â Â Â Â ifTrue:Â Â Â [stream skip: -1. > Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â next := nil]. > Â Â Â ^ next > > > The original method executes in 23.45 seconds > Removing the message sends (Character cr and Character lf) and replacing > them with class vars brings that down to 10.9 seconds. > Then, replacing #= by #== brings the average time to 4.25 seconds. > > Tests were executed for 10000000 characters. > > Hope this helps! > > Keep me posted! > > > ----------------- > Benoit St-Jean > A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero. > (Albert Einstein) > > > > >> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 03:10:20 -0300 >> From: hernan.morales(a)gmail.com >> To: pharo-users(a)lists.gforge.inria.fr >> Subject: Re: [Pharo-users] Fastest matrix implementation? >> >> I cannot send the CSV files because they are private data currently >> being used for research, just to give a hint I'm parsing files from >> 800,000 to 19 millions of lines. >> >> I'm using http://www.squeaksource.com/SimpleTextParser.html which is >> based in http://www.squeaksource.com/CSV.html plus some useful >> additions (for me). >> >> 2010/12/7 Benoit St-Jean <bstjean(a)hotmail.ca>: >> > What are you using to read those CSV files?Â Do you have a file so we >> > can >> > have a look at it and possibly speed up the reading of the CSV file? >> > >> > ----------------- >> > Benoit St-Jean >> > A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero. >> > (Albert Einstein) >> > >> > >> > >> > >> >> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 16:54:37 -0300 >> >> From: hernan.morales(a)gmail.com >> >> To: pharo-users(a)lists.gforge.inria.fr >> >> Subject: Re: [Pharo-users] Fastest matrix implementation? >> >> >> >> Hi Benoit, >> >> >> >> I've loaded the package but it seems the port is not complete, i.e. if >> >> you evaluate: >> >> >> >> DhbMatrix new: 10 >> >> >> >> you will get a MessageNotUnderstood: Interval>>asVector because >> >> extension methods were not ported. I uploaded to the SqueakSource a >> >> new version including extension methods and now most tests pass. >> >> >> >> Concerning the performance issues, I've narrowed my code to only >> >> measure the writing and reading of a matrix of 710500 elements, >> >> resulting in 58239 milliseconds for the native Matrix implementation >> >> and 56920 for DhbMatrix. >> >> It seems my performance problem involves reading and parsing a "CSV" >> >> file >> >> >> >> Elements Matrix DhbMatrix >> >> 53400 18274 17329 >> >> 175960 61043 60722 >> >> 710500 379276 385278 >> >> >> >> I will check if it's worth to implement a primitive for very fast >> >> parsing of CSV files. >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> >> 2010/12/5 Benoit St-Jean <bstjean(a)hotmail.ca>: >> >> > Have you tried the matrix implementation in the numerical package >> >> > from >> >> > Didier H. Besset? >> >> > >> >> > http://squeaksource.com/@Q45T_l348Ag07gGT/VMsGzidC >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > ----------------- >> >> > Benoit St-Jean >> >> > A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero. >> >> > (Albert Einstein) >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> >> Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 17:33:17 -0300 >> >> >> From: hernan.morales(a)gmail.com >> >> >> To: pharo-users(a)lists.gforge.inria.fr >> >> >> Subject: [Pharo-users] Fastest matrix implementation? >> >> >> >> >> >> Hi list >> >> >> >> >> >> In the context of a scientific project here we are building big >> >> >> matrices for later processing, mostly exporting to custom file >> >> >> formats >> >> >> for PLINK, HaploView, etc (bioinformatics tools). I've tested one of >> >> >> our scripts in both Pharo 1.1 (not CogVM) with the corresponding >> >> >> Python 2.6 implementation (without PyPy), and the performance in >> >> >> Python was superior, about 8x faster than ST. >> >> >> So I wonder if anyone knows the fastest (or a faster) implementation >> >> >> of Matrix than the included by default in Collections? >> >> >> >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> HernÃ¡n Morales >> >> Information Technology Manager, >> >> Institute of Veterinary Genetics. >> >> National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). >> >> La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina. >> >> Telephone: +54 (0221) 421-1799. >> >> Internal: 422 >> >> Fax: 425-7980 or 421-1799. >> >> >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> HernÃ¡n Morales >> Information Technology Manager, >> Institute of Veterinary Genetics. >> National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). >> La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina. >> Telephone: +54 (0221) 421-1799. >> Internal: 422 >> Fax: 425-7980 or 421-1799. >> >

1 0

Pharocasts: access SQLite databases through ODBC
by laurent laffont Dec. 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010

See how to setup and access an SQLite database through ODBC on Windows. Recorded by Torsten Bergmann. Enjoy: http://www.pharocasts.com/2010/12/access-database-through-odbc.html Laurent Laffont Pharo Smalltalk Screencasts: http://www.pharocasts.com/ Blog: http://magaloma.blogspot.com/

2 1