October 2016 - Pharo-users - lists.pharo.org

Re: [Pharo-users] The Ultimate Smalltalk Tutorial

by Dimitris Chloupis

I decided to make a new version for ProfStef released under then name "Pharo Live Tutorial". My goals are to: 1) add to it a history panel, so the user can navigate to the part he wants. 2) group parts into chapters to make progress more clear 3) break some parts to smaller parts to ensure smooth learning curve 4) add it to the help section of the world menu , so it is far more visible to the user 5) link parts to relevant chapter and section of PBE5 (or any other relevant book), so the user can easily access more detailed info in case he wants to. 6) Design the tool so it can accommodate multiple tutorials, each having its own chapters and parts 7) Design a GUI to navigate to tutorials 8) Integrate it with GTSpotter so the user can easily find the information he or she wants 9) Integrate small challenge games to help the user test what he learned and have fun at the same time, with ability to be awarded with a score in terms of "levels" and of course badges for achievements ;) 10) Provide an integrated blog (nothing fancy, just text) , for latest news about pharo , this blog will be basically copying some of my blog posts , to show to users that we are alive and kicking and not just an almost dead project and of course advertise the hard work of many of my fellow guardians of the light. PS: obviously references to Stef will remain and he will be credited as author of the tutorial Can't promise when it will be ready and can't promise first version will include all the above but this is the direction I want to go with this. This live interactive tutorial will replace my video tutorials since they are too hard to keep updated. On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 3:04 PM Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz(a)gmail.com> wrote: > *stepharo:* > > Why not pushing/improving > > either > UPBE > ProfStef > With the Mooc Counter example: In TWO MINUTES people get > something DONE a simple counter. > What else can it be. > > > I run the following experience during my lecture. I give 1 hour > presentation about pharo / vision / sneakpeek and ask them to watch the > counter > video and redo it and it works! > > > Indeed, you can. My opinion was in the lines of improving Profstef :) > > Mooc may be good in a class with a teacher for the student to take doubts, > but I find a little confusing for someone that finds it by its own in > pharo.org. > > I have some friends on the field, some are overseas (I am in Brazil) and > when the opportunity comes I talk about Smalltalk and Pharo and how good it > is, then: > > 1- Some get interested and asks for reference, I usually point to the > Proftef, the site and the PBE; > 2- Some are interested and we are close so I can I explain something > myself and show the environment, maybe pairing; > 3- Sometimes someone got interested and went to the pharo.org by itself > and I know of that only afterwards. > > In every situation people got confused :( > > The best time was 2, because I could explain better what was going on, but > usually people try by itself, and that don't went well. For example, some > report to me that had made the exercise from PBE and got really confused in > the end: what was that I was doing? Where are my classes again? Workspace? > Where is the code again? What happened? > > I think it is hard for someone that already internalize the concept of > image and self contained environment to understand why this confusion is > happening, but when you come to think about it that is not so strange > because people are used to files and all those crap static stuff, so it is > kind of a huge paradigm shift learning Pharo: it *is* confusing for them. > > But it seems to me that you are focusing more on fresh people, been teach > on classrooms and such, right now. That may be good, I am not sure if > people already in the industry can be cooped in enough size to be able to > improve Pharo community and use. > > On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 9:21 AM, stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr> wrote: > > funnily dale I read it like you wish :) > > > > Le 26/10/16 Ã 21:53, Dale Henrichs a Ã©crit : > > > > On 10/26/16 12:13 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas wrote: > > > Hi, > > On the issue of contributing to Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) > projects, I have been reading recently Nadia Eghbal and her analysis that > confirm that most FLOSS projects are done by individuals and small teams, > which is contrary to the bazaar narrative. This comic shows the point: > > and you can find more details here: > https://medium.com/@nayafia/what-success-really-looks-like-in-open-source-2… > > After skimming the actual article and finding that the points made in the > article are valid I would have wished that the right panel in the cartoon > had said "one more pull request before going to bed" since that is closer > to what the article is about ... an active, community that contributes is > also an important component and something that Pharo/Smalltalk community > does indeed have. > > Dale > > > >

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] DatePrinter

by stepharo

French is already in and there are so great class comments that I'm crying because of outshined by beauty. Excellent job of sven as usual. french self monthNames: #( 'Janvier' 'FÃ©vrier' 'Mars' 'Avril' 'Mai' 'Juin' 'Juillet' 'AoÃ»t' 'Septembre' 'Octobre' 'Novembre' 'DÃ©cembre' ). self weekdayNames: #( 'Dimanche' 'Lundi' 'Mardi' 'Mecredi' 'Jeudi' 'Vendredi' 'Samedi' ) Stef Le 27/10/16 Ã 14:27, Denis Kudriashov a Ã©crit : > > 2016-10-27 14:22 GMT+02:00 stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr > <mailto:stepharo@free.fr>>: > > (ZTimestampFormat fromString: 'SAT, FEB 03 2001 (16:05:06)') > french > > > #french is your addition? or it was already supported?

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] DatePrinter

by Denis Kudriashov

2016-10-27 14:22 GMT+02:00 stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr>: > (ZTimestampFormat fromString: 'SAT, FEB 03 2001 (16:05:06)') > french > #french is your addition? or it was already supported?

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] DatePrinter

by stepharo

Thanks Denis This is really a great package. I will use it and throw away what I started. (ZTimestampFormat fromString: 'SAT, FEB 03 2001 (16:05:06)') format: ZTimestamp now. > THU, OCT 27 2016 (12:20:20) (ZTimestampFormat fromString: 'SAT, FEB 03 2001 (16:05:06)') french; format: ZTimestamp now. "'JEU, OCT 27 2016 (12:21:34)'" Le 27/10/16 Ã 13:58, Denis Kudriashov a Ã©crit : > I would suggest to look at ZTimestamp > https://github.com/svenvc/docs/blob/master/neo/ztimestamp.md. > Maybe it is not exactly what you want. But example based date/time > formatting and parsing are really nice > > 2016-10-27 13:20 GMT+02:00 stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr > <mailto:stepharo@free.fr>>: > > Hi > > for a little project I need to print date in a nice way (for > example french) and I wonder if someone already did that. > > Right now I'm extracting behavior from Date and putting it in its > own class so that I can write > > > testAPI > | datePrinter | > datePrinter := DatePrinter new. > datePrinter > inFrench; > mmddyyyy. > datePrinter for: (Date year: 2016 month: 1 day: 3). > self assert: datePrinter print equals: '3 Janvier 2016' > > I will for fun see how I can add an english and spanish version. > > > Stef > > >

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] The Ultimate Smalltalk Tutorial

by Vitor Medina Cruz

*stepharo:* Why not pushing/improving > either > UPBE > ProfStef > With the Mooc Counter example: In TWO MINUTES people get > something DONE a simple counter. > What else can it be. > I run the following experience during my lecture. I give 1 hour > presentation about pharo / vision / sneakpeek and ask them to watch the > counter > video and redo it and it works! Indeed, you can. My opinion was in the lines of improving Profstef :) Mooc may be good in a class with a teacher for the student to take doubts, but I find a little confusing for someone that finds it by its own in pharo.org. I have some friends on the field, some are overseas (I am in Brazil) and when the opportunity comes I talk about Smalltalk and Pharo and how good it is, then: 1- Some get interested and asks for reference, I usually point to the Proftef, the site and the PBE; 2- Some are interested and we are close so I can I explain something myself and show the environment, maybe pairing; 3- Sometimes someone got interested and went to the pharo.org by itself and I know of that only afterwards. In every situation people got confused :( The best time was 2, because I could explain better what was going on, but usually people try by itself, and that don't went well. For example, some report to me that had made the exercise from PBE and got really confused in the end: what was that I was doing? Where are my classes again? Workspace? Where is the code again? What happened? I think it is hard for someone that already internalize the concept of image and self contained environment to understand why this confusion is happening, but when you come to think about it that is not so strange because people are used to files and all those crap static stuff, so it is kind of a huge paradigm shift learning Pharo: it *is* confusing for them. But it seems to me that you are focusing more on fresh people, been teach on classrooms and such, right now. That may be good, I am not sure if people already in the industry can be cooped in enough size to be able to improve Pharo community and use. On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 9:21 AM, stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr> wrote: > funnily dale I read it like you wish :) > > > > Le 26/10/16 Ã 21:53, Dale Henrichs a Ã©crit : > > > > On 10/26/16 12:13 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas wrote: > > > Hi, > > On the issue of contributing to Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) > projects, I have been reading recently Nadia Eghbal and her analysis that > confirm that most FLOSS projects are done by individuals and small teams, > which is contrary to the bazaar narrative. This comic shows the point: > > and you can find more details here: https://medium.com/@nayafia/ > what-success-really-looks-like-in-open-source-2dd1facaf91c#.e360z53sf > > After skimming the actual article and finding that the points made in the > article are valid I would have wished that the right panel in the cartoon > had said "one more pull request before going to bed" since that is closer > to what the article is about ... an active, community that contributes is > also an important component and something that Pharo/Smalltalk community > does indeed have. > > Dale > > >

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] DatePrinter

by Denis Kudriashov

I would suggest to look at ZTimestamp https://github.com/svenvc/docs/blob/master/neo/ztimestamp.md. Maybe it is not exactly what you want. But example based date/time formatting and parsing are really nice 2016-10-27 13:20 GMT+02:00 stepharo <stepharo(a)free.fr>: > Hi > > for a little project I need to print date in a nice way (for example > french) and I wonder if someone already did that. > > Right now I'm extracting behavior from Date and putting it in its own > class so that I can write > > > testAPI > | datePrinter | > datePrinter := DatePrinter new. > datePrinter > inFrench; > mmddyyyy. > datePrinter for: (Date year: 2016 month: 1 day: 3). > self assert: datePrinter print equals: '3 Janvier 2016' > > I will for fun see how I can add an english and spanish version. > > > Stef > > >

Oct. 27, 2016

[ALERT] Pharo by Example version 5 is about to be released

by Dimitris Chloupis

In case someone missed it I will be doing a release for version 5 (pharo version = pbe version) this weekend , since we had Pharo 7 initiated few days ago. Essentially that means that the repo will be tagged for version 5, which means a git commit is associated as a last commit for that version and there will be a frozen release - download for Pharo by Example version 5. After that we move to Pharo By Example version 6 or PBE6 for short The repo wont change otherwise and the process of submitting commits, pull requests and issues remains the same. If you have found a flaw of any sort in the documentation , please open an issue in the github issue tracker that can be found here https://github.com/SquareBracketAssociates/UpdatedPharoByExample/issues I will try to fix any problem reported but if I cannot , the fix will have to move to version 6 As always thanks to all people contributing into the impossible .... making Pharo more amazing If you want to contribute feel free to do so with a pull request. Does not matter if you are beginner because even minor corrections like correcting mistakes in the grammar or content of the text, updated pictures, or just a few lines of extra info are more than enough and more than welcomed. Many Pharo beginners have already done so . -Salute to fellow Guardians of The Light

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] The Ultimate Smalltalk Tutorial

by stepharo

funnily dale I read it like you wish :) Le 26/10/16 Ã 21:53, Dale Henrichs a Ã©crit : > > > > On 10/26/16 12:13 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas wrote: >> >> >> Hi, >> >> On the issue of contributing to Free, Libre, Open Source Software >> (FLOSS) projects, I have been reading recently Nadia Eghbal and her >> analysis that confirm that most FLOSS projects are done by >> individuals and small teams, which is contrary to the bazaar >> narrative. This comic shows the point: >> >> and you can find more details here: >> https://medium.com/@nayafia/what-success-really-looks-like-in-open-source-2… >> > After skimming the actual article and finding that the points made in > the article are valid I would have wished that the right panel in the > cartoon had said "one more pull request before going to bed" since > that is closer to what the article is about ... an active, community > that contributes is also an important component and something that > Pharo/Smalltalk community does indeed have. > > Dale

Oct. 27, 2016

DatePrinter

by stepharo

Hi for a little project I need to print date in a nice way (for example french) and I wonder if someone already did that. Right now I'm extracting behavior from Date and putting it in its own class so that I can write testAPI | datePrinter | datePrinter := DatePrinter new. datePrinter inFrench; mmddyyyy. datePrinter for: (Date year: 2016 month: 1 day: 3). self assert: datePrinter print equals: '3 Janvier 2016' I will for fun see how I can add an english and spanish version. Stef

Oct. 27, 2016

Re: [Pharo-users] The Ultimate Smalltalk Tutorial

by phil＠highoctane.be

Tried but no cigar... [image: Inline image 1] On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 9:56 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas < offray.luna(a)mutabit.com> wrote: > You're welcomed. The English Grafoscopio page is here (with updated > installation instructions): > > http://mutabit.com/grafoscopio/index.en.html > > Tutorial is mainly in Spanish, but the code is pretty readable :-). > > Cheers, > > Offray > > On 26/10/16 14:36, phil(a)highoctane.be wrote: > > Interesting. > > I really need to get into that grafoscopio... > > Phil > > On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 9:13 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas < > offray.luna(a)mutabit.com> wrote: > >> >> Hi, >> >> On the issue of contributing to Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) >> projects, I have been reading recently Nadia Eghbal and her analysis that >> confirm that most FLOSS projects are done by individuals and small teams, >> which is contrary to the bazaar narrative. This comic shows the point: >> >> and you can find more details here: https://medium.com/@nayafia/wh >> at-success-really-looks-like-in-open-source-2dd1facaf91c#.e360z53sf >> >> In that sense Pharo and what we're doing here on small communities, teams >> and individuals, is not the exception, is the rule. We're fortunate that we >> have a friendly and dynamic community around a powerful environment, so >> even being part of the rule, we can be very creative and productive. >> >> On the issue of step 0, learning materials and approaches, and Pharo for >> beginners, my findings are that Pharo is pretty well suited for >> non-programmers (journalist, scientist, teachers, philosophers) compared to >> IPython for example. I have tried both, IPython notebooks and >> Pharo/Grafoscopio, and the uniformity and self containment of the >> environment is very empowering, without too much overhead and extra >> complications. So I think that we also need to look towards the non-usual >> programmer and computer scientist profiles for the "newbies" and interested >> in belonging to the community. >> >> Our approach in our Data Week workshop is different: >> >> - We start with some panoramic view of computing comparing Unix fathers >> versus dynabook children. This gives a point to see the technology and the >> differences and why Pharo is more like OS + IDE + Apps in a minimalist >> fashion, instead of the Unix legacy approach to the same problem. >> >> - We go to the professor Stef tutorial, which is the first part of a >> Grafoscopio notebook. Then we use some one liners taking from Sven's >> Elegant Pharo code, then we use HernÃ¡n's Internet Movie Data Base example >> to introduce JSON, queries and REST API, then we use blocks to abstract the >> example (see below) and create our first "Cinemania" package. >> >> - Then we learn how to extend the Dataviz package (made in Roassal), with >> our Twitter exported data and we deal with an open problem: Twitter Data >> Selfies. >> >> >> So, there are several routes to learning for different populations and >> contexts. Putting the new contextualized stuff we're doing in dialogue with >> the material the community is creating (MOOC, UPBE, Deep Into Pharo) and >> other communities like Open Knowledge (see our recent for the upcomming >> Data Week 7 at [a]) is the key to let learners traverse different paths >> according to their needs and interests. >> >> [a] https://discuss.okfn.org/t/data-week-7-our-critical-code-dat >> a-literacy-and-visualization-hackathon-returns/3823 >> >> Cheers, >> >> Offray >> >> On 25/10/16 22:19, Dimitris Chloupis wrote: >> >> Ruby On Rails was started by one developer , so no it's not users that >> bring contributors it's contributors that bring users. Smalltalk started by >> a small team. Almost all programming languages started with no users and >> mostly a sole developer. This is because a user will not use software that >> is not even alpha, on the other hand a contributor will be a user and a >> contributor regardless of the state of software provided he has the desire >> to do so. >> >> Spreading the word and helping people understand Pharo no longer makes >> you a user, it promotes you to contributor >> >> Same applies to Richard >> >> ;) >> On Wed, 26 Oct 2016 at 03:19, Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz(a)gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> Yes it is an amazing thing what you all do, I admire that. But isn't >>> contributors previous users? >>> >>> What I like about the Richard intent, from what I understand, is to make >>> Smalltalk, and Pharo, more visible, more used, and that is the only way I >>> know to bring more contributors. From what I know, Ruby got a lot of more >>> contributors after Rails, which brought a lot of users to the platform. >>> >>> I really would like to contribute some day, in the mean time I will try >>> to support initiatives like the one proposed by Richard, and spread the >>> word as much as I can. >>> >>> >>> On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Dimitris Chloupis < >>> kilon.alios(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> Do you know how many unique views had PBE last 5 months ? 1000 >>> Do you know how many contributions PBE had last 5 months ? Zero. Not 100 >>> . Not even 10. Not even 1... zero >>> >>> PBE would be still in Pharo version 1.4 if it was not for me , Stef and >>> Damien. >>> >>> This is not a Pharo problem, all open source software has the same >>> issue. >>> >>> We need more people helping, I ported the first 1/3rd of the book from >>> 1.4 to Pharo 4 just by myself and the other two joined after I was burned >>> out from the pain. I was disgusted working on PBE . I literally hated >>> Pharo. Fortunately nothing that a bit of a small break could not fix. >>> >>> I was and still I am the most loud critic about the state of >>> documentation. In the end however what makes open source projects exist is >>> not users. Users are insignificant. Sorry to say that but is true. It's >>> contributors that are the life of the project. >>> >>> People like Stef made Pharo and even Squeak possible. People like Stef >>> keep Smalltalk alive. Personally I don't give a damn what users want , I >>> rather attract only contributors and zero just users. That's enough to keep >>> Pharo evolving for centuries. >>> >>> Stef says that "Pharo is yours" , apparently this easier said than done. >>> I respect your opinion, I agree with your opinion because I said what you >>> say years ago. In the end however if you and other users are not willing to >>> help we will remain at zero commits at least as far as PBE is concerned . >>> >>> It's pretty much the same for the other areas of Pharo. >>> On Wed, 26 Oct 2016 at 01:26, Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz(a)gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>> *Dimitris:* >>> >>> I agree with much of what you said, but I think it is still possible to >>> make step 0 and follow the Pharo path with more easy. :) >>> >>> Also, https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/job/UpdatedPhar >>> oByExample/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/book-result/ >>> PharoTour/PharoTour.html is nice too, I didn't know of it. It is the >>> new version of PBE ongoing? I am going to take a look at it. >>> >>> Ben: >>> >>> Thanks for the links, two of them I didn't know of. I hadn't time to >>> read them yet, but I think what I am looking for is something like >>> https://medium.com/concerning-pharo/reddit-st-in-10- >>> cool-pharo-classes-1b5327ca0740 >>> >>> "The things we see as important might be a paradigm step too far for >>> newcomers." >>> >>> >>> I think the problem for Step 0 it is exactly that. I myself have already >>> tried to show the paradigm shift along with all that must be learn to use >>> Pharo, and it didn't went well. It is too much to tackle at once. There is >>> the language, the environment, the IDE, the paradigm shift, too much... >>> >>> Nicolai: >>> >>> The first example from the book provides the first experience you have >>> on Pharo, and it uses stuff that is not on the default image (it happened >>> to me a long time ago and with a friend more recently). It is frustrating >>> and leave the person trying to learn suspicious. I see that the current >>> site for the book has a link to the image that should be used while reading >>> the book, but it is not very visible and I think the book don't mention >>> it. From the Getting Started chapter I count five pages until some code is >>> executed (Time now). The problem here is that people usually don't >>> understand, yet, the power of the environment, and are eager to see code >>> and execute it, and they often get confused with so many different things >>> to learn even before the first "Hello World". I can say the first time I >>> got PBE I gave up because of this, and I only come back later because I >>> persist to learn Smalltalk, and I know some other people who tried to read >>> it too and give up for exactly the same reason. >>> >>> I found the book an excellent reference and source to solidify the >>> understanding of Pharo, but I don't like it as a tutorial. >>> >>> >>> *-------* >>> >>> Look at the Go language site: https://golang.org/, the first thing it >>> puts in your face is a way to execute code and a link to a Tour. I don't >>> even have to think much before I have executed the Hello World, my hand >>> just moved the mouse to the Run button, and even before I noticed I was >>> doing the tour. >>> >>> In my opinion, a good Step 0 would be something like Profstef ( >>> http://amber-lang.net/learn.html) as a Tour, going slowly through the >>> language aspects, messages types, comparing to other OO languages, showing >>> that operator are just messages, then that control flow statements are also >>> just messages, creating classes etc, always letting the user execute code >>> as she goes on. >>> >>> After that, the Tour could tell its user to continue it using the image >>> and showing the download link. When the user execute Pharo.exe and loads >>> the default image the first thing that appears is the Profstef asking if it >>> is the first time he is there and if he is continuing the tour from the web >>> (if it is someone used to Pharo, he just closes the windows and starts to >>> use his new fresh image). It could explains steadily the workspace, the >>> transcript, the nautilus and how to make a very simple web application with >>> tests. After that it could explain the image, that objects are stored >>> (serialized) into it and the image itself consists of the running program >>> while the Pharo.exe is the VM. In the end It could point to a tutorial like >>> https://medium.com/concerning-pharo/reddit-st-in-10- >>> cool-pharo-classes-1b5327ca0740, the PBE and to the many others >>> resources available. >>> >>> The order of things could change and maybe I had missed something, but >>> that is what I can think now. Perhaps this approach is too slow, I don't >>> know, but the fast one isn't working for me :( It don't need to be a tour >>> also, but something in these lines, like the medium post above but with >>> more parts, each describing a little more of Pharo. The idea, in general, >>> is to easy the entrance barriers that Pharo has by it's quite different, >>> yet powerful, programming model and environment. When I talk to people I >>> know that have tried Pharo, that is the biggest problem. >>> >>> That is just my two cents. :) >>> >>> And thanks for all the new links :) >>> >>> Regards, >>> Vitor >>> >>> >> >> > >

Oct. 26, 2016