September 2014 - Pharo-users

How can I help make installing Pharo easier (on Debian Wheezy)?
by Sloane Simmons Sept. 16, 2014

Sept. 16, 2014

Hi all, Apologies if this is not the right place for this - I'm just getting started with Smalltalk and I had a lot of trouble when first trying to get going since the binaries on pharo.org don't work with Debian Wheezy's glibc (2.13, whereas Pharo is compiled against 2.15 IIRC). I tried compiling from the Github repository (https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm) but it looks this needs an existing binary version of pharo to work in order to bootstrap the compilation. I eventually just used a virtualbox Ubuntu environment (14.04) and was able to install there. For learning Smalltalk, running in a virtualbox VM absolutely works (for me), but I'd like to try and compile for Debian stable (or statically link glibc(?)) and then add to the official repositories so that it's easier to install. Bonus points would be making a 64-bit version... ;) Thanks, Sloane Simmons

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Recursive #printOn: renders the image unusable
by Esteban A. Maringolo Sept. 16, 2014

Sept. 16, 2014

Today I made the mistake (twice) of developing in the debugger a #printOn: method depending on a not yet defined #name method in the same class. The result is an image completely blocked out, with an infinite recursion trying to print receiver The culprit is Object>>#name, which by default... is the receiver printString (bypassing the #printStringLimitedTo:... version)! So if you implement #printOn: depending on #name, but you didn't implement #name differently to how Object does, you created yourself an infinite recursion. Now I found why it is happening, so I will explicitly define #name prior to any #printOn: implementation. Particularly if I'm inside the debugger which will try to print the offending class or any variable affected by this bug. However I have a few questions about this: a) Shouldn't a recursion too deep be detected? b) Why can't I interrupt a process running in the UI thread like this one? Regards. Esteban A. Maringolo The call stack: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printOn: DTColumnParameter>>printOn: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: in Block: [ :s | self printOn: s ] String class(SequenceableCollection class)>>streamContents:limitedTo: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printString DTColumnParameter(Object)>>name <<---- Here we go... DTColumnParameter>>printOn: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: in Block: [ :s | self printOn: s ] String class(SequenceableCollection class)>>streamContents:limitedTo: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: DTColumnParameter(Object)>>printString DTColumnParameter(Object)>>name

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[ANN] Easy I18N for Pharo
by Torsten Bergmann Sept. 16, 2014

Sept. 16, 2014

I just refer to my original announcement: "Need an EASY translation framework for your Pharo application with NO EXTERNAL dependency?" That's it. Nothing fancy. Nothing more. Only a simple project. You can - but must not use it and I did not announce it as a GetText replacement. ;) With "I18N" there is no need to externally set up other tools, by default no playing with files. One can manage and version the translation with the code. It is open to the format and I do not have to reinstall external tools when I switch between computers. Start up Pharo and off I go. But this is specific to me and maybe different for others. If it gets complicated one can always switch to GetText or other solutions. Look at the webframeworks - we have Teapot, Aida, Seaside, ... so let the users decide what he wants to use. And GetText is not the only format. Look at Java - there you have messages and message property files or *.resx from .NET world. In I18N I can use them as source as well if I like and they are also not uncommon in translation (offices) and have nice tool support too. Hilaire wrote: >For DrGeo this is a show stopper. As I said it depends on the needs and you may be right for Dr. Geo (or other Pharo based applications). >From the discussion I think we can agree that it would be good to also have good Pharo support for GetText. And then lets talk about the IMHO currently horrible state of GetText and how to fix it: 1. Why is "GetText" not easily loadable from the config browser? If we want people to find and use it we should make it accessible. 2. When you google for "Pharo" and "GetText" you will find https://code.google.com/p/seaside/wiki/Gettext as the first match. The page is outdated, points to the old repository on SqueakSource http://www.squeaksource.com/PharoNonCorePackages/ and even that page does not include a hint that meanwhile the package moved to STHub. 3. Also the new hosting on the STHub page http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~PharoExtras/Gettext seems broken, it includes the following comment: "Migrated from PharoNonCorePackages. Should be adapted to Pharo2.0" Outdated comment or not usable in Pharo 3.0/4.0? 4. The last version there is Gettext-HilaireFernandes.33, that is the one that is also included in Dr. Geo. The code should be updated as a) it includes a reference to missing class "MethodReference" in #appendVocabulary:domains: b) the NaturalLanguageTranslator>>cleanUp method references a class variable that is not there Any takers? 5. Writing a simple docu for I18N on STHub took me only a few minutes using markdown and https://stackedit.io. (Pillar and PillarHub provide the same, but STHub does not support it). So why not write a similar docu for GetText including code snippets and all the knowledge that seems to be there already from using it... Bye T.

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not a smalltalk!
by Mayuresh Kathe Sept. 16, 2014

Sept. 16, 2014

hey, i've just been reading up the pharo forums, and one of the posts/entries mentions something about pharo not being a smalltalk, but instead a dialect! is it true? that would mean, all or any code i write for pharo would not be portable to other smalltalk-80 systems! hmnn... ~mayuresh

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Re: [Pharo-users] BootstrapMagritte load Error
by Stephan Eggermont Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Hi Udo, Thanks. That is part of what is needed. In the ConfigurationOfBootstrap, 0.12.0 refers directly to Seaside 3.1.3. I updated it to 0.12.1 Stephan

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Re: [Pharo-users] BootstrapMagritte load Error
by Stephan Eggermont Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Hi Udo, Thanks for the update. The current stable BootstrapMagritte loads version090, and works. Changing groups indeed breaks all users and forces them to upgrade. I'm not sure why version0110 and version0120 no longer refer to release versions of Seaside, nor why there is a baseline0130 Stephan

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Re: [Pharo-users] [ANN] Easy I18N for Pharo
by Stephan Eggermont Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Johan wrote: >I also agree 100% with Hilaire: Gettext is a standard where plenty of external tools can work with. Though itâs nice to have translation tools in the image, you will have to do everything yourself. Just take a look at >everyhting that is done by poedit [1]. Do we really want to implement everything ourselves? The main problems I have with external tools is the lack of translation context and the slow feedback cycle. That is killing for translation speed and quality. Stephan

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BootstrapMagritte load Error
by Udo Schneider Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Hi Stephan, hi Thorsten, the current stable version of ConfigurationOfBootstrapMagritte doesn't load anymore. It seems that the stable version of ConfigurationOfBootstrap changed some group names ('core' -> 'Core', 'widgets' -> 'Widgets') which are referenced in ConfigurationOfBootstrapMagritte and not yet updated. Hope this helps. CU, Udo

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[ANN] Easy I18N for Pharo
by Torsten Bergmann Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Need an easy translation framework for your Pharo application with no external dependency? Then check out the I18N project: http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~TorstenBergmann/I18N Docu and examples can be found on the same page, screenshot is attached. Bye T.

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Sprint Friday 26 @ Lille
by stepharo Sept. 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Hi guys we will organize an official Pharo Sprint at Lille Friday 26 as mentioned in the calendar http://pharo.org/contribute-events Let us know if you plan to join. We will take care of the logistic :) Stef

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