December 2019 - Pharo-users

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by tbrunz

I've had the same experience myself. And now that I'm starting to introduce & teach Pharo to some of my colleagues (to build a users group where I work), I realize this can be a significant deterrent or stumbling block for newcomers. That's gotten me to think a bit about how to best address this issue, for myself and others. Now, as part of my introductions, I emphasize that "one of the hardest things about learning any object-oriented language is learning the base classes and methods -- because that's what you build */your/* application code on top of -- so you need to be familiar with it." Then I point out that you cannot learn the whole thing at once, but fortunately /you do not need to/. Adopting Pharo after a career of using other programming languages & environments can be a lot like changing operating systems (e.g., Windows -> Linux or Mac): You'll need to learn the basics to get started, then you add to your knowledge of what's there and how it works bit by bit as you realize there's something you need to know. You learn it incrementally. But there's already a lot there that's familiar in principle; the names, apperance, and locations are of course different. But "you know what /should/ be there... what's it called? where's it located?" The answers to these questions can usually be quickly found -- if you know the questions. ("What you know you don't know" versus "What you don't know you don't know'.) You can also pick something each day to research in Pharo, gradually getting more & more familiar. Experiment or watch videos, etc. Then I point out that Pharo has several tools & techniques to help with exploring and discovering classes and methods: * The Spotter, for quickly drilling down to what you need, or to reach a good starting place to begin exploring. * The Finder, including the ability to search by example. * 'Code search...' in the context pop-up menu (especially senders and implementers of). * The Playground: Provides a great way you can experiment with code snippets to see how things work; coupled with inspecting the results of expressions/statements, you can quickly get many starting points for further ideas. (If any readers can expand on this list, or phrase things better, please do!) One thing I did recently to experiment with the "explorable nature" of Pharo was inspired by noticing that in the Playground, if you "Print it" on an expression, the result appears in an ephemeral text widget; it disappears when you next click. But in other windows (most noticeably 'ProfStef'), the result is automatically pasted into the source's window. This can be useful, but sometimes it can be unwanted. (Yes, there is the option of "Inspect it", but "Print it" is quick and simple: "show me, then go away".) I wanted to know why it was different, and how... So I set off exploring, with the challenge of drilling down to the specific lines of source code deep within the base classes that produced each result, so I could see the difference in rendering "Print it" for these two cases. It was intimidating at first, but using the techniques I listed above (and two sessions, after the first one was "going off the rails" a little), I found both methods in a couple of hours. And it increased my understanding of "how it works". But it did something else, something a little intangible by comparison: It took away some of the mystery of "how Pharo works internally" (while boosting my appreciation of Pharo's brilliance in design and execution). Along the way I learned a bit about how some of these classes work, where they are in the hierarchy, and how they link together. Ultimately, my initial goal turned out be a much bigger challenge than I originally thought it would be: I wanted to see if I could mod ProfStef to *not* paste the "Print it" results into its own presentation window, and behave instead like the Playground. I found that the "column of classes" that lead to these two different behaviors are well-separated, and it seems to require the duplication of a lot of code to even begin do this; a simple override or extension to one or two base classes won't work. But it was satisfying to prove I can do this -- without help, on my own -- and boosted my confidence that I can "disassemble Pharo" whenever I need to, to answer these kinds of questions, find things, and learn the finer points of how they work & interoperate. -Ted -- Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html

Dec. 19, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] Code overview - or maybe not

by Hilaire

Works with StringMorph too... -- Dr. Geo http://drgeo.eu

Dec. 19, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] Code overview - or maybe not

by Hilaire

You should use TextMorph. What about: || t | t := TextMorph new. t backgroundColor: Color blue. t contents: 'Hello'. t lock. t openInWorld|| | Le 19/12/2019 Ã 15:28, Kasper Osterbye a Ã©critÂ : > I was struggling for weeks (not every day, but still) to find out how > to change the system to be able to give background color to text.Â > -- Dr. Geo http://drgeo.eu

Dec. 19, 2019

Code overview - or maybe not

by Kasper Osterbye

In an other thread Steve Davies mentions that Pharo can be a bit overwhelming. Indeed I have had the same feeling. I was struggling for weeks (not every day, but still) to find out how to change the system to be able to give background color to text. As part of my attempt at understanding the code, I ended up looking at Rubric and its Text morphs. I have been working at building a little tool which can help me get an overview of the objects and how the are connected. Not a static code analysis, but a snapshot view. What I did was I took a root object, and made the transitive object closure from that object, with the following restrictions: - Only Rubric, Morphic and Collections are examined, though Strings are excluded - Only instance variables which has a selector of the same name are included - The same object only appear once in the diagram, but more than one instance of a class can be present (at different places). I build on a tool named PlantUML. When I bring up the morphic halo on a playground and select "inspect morph", and then draw the diagram for that morph, I get this diagram <https://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/svg/ZLfFZzks4h_lfp1oUdieG54aHVNmq6IJea4RTD4jyCvQMzdLYsmPifncltr7iZYS6L7hFHamvpSav_yCzSjfgFhXl6zlRePcQEjDjVdh_FYmxRkshNT_rp-6Brr_VFvFMPQkB4gjRczkkiV_rzjXymu8Hu8_caFzRbETDl2_YgiJxjEFeJwSckuG26pkjRVAkaZuULyzrHDr8CfANIXTQCBjOL-rxUTTVO1JldnijWFmhFeNH3YTErFc1F6-xwkuNkIPCzOOTlhxgg-U-YfkN7ezxgpygvSioB6wVgXtTwEmfYC54cTrcIdA9oqEu-6MPUdvkO2ihnxgcUV7UjlrrT3rU1cL5IhF2otPDzjFtq52lrM7NLiZUPvRwtFZ_MiYBvGj2bLOlIP02n8i7HVCmtDt7Xw65zXiSSZ2gp8hbL4CyNxNzOSzdF5ZSpgsrKiyfSkpJ9VAYnr6jGzL--tJhY7CTUwjpfoY1d84yb-Rm-wl6XXlwuUw_zviKMSQZACq9jUC_TqpMC1sgFiFRRVzXWBBR6P052fz572EvZWqXwSltIxQXFMbjKpZJ7wkp7AjnUtk-sOFHeoQPXh9jNCP75fViw7IUsrqLhYhlcUiTuxf-4FNx-g-th6TdIjDgHX3RWjWJUF9hbktjc1NeAWt-x4VUSC9kPf6vOEyt_TrXPS66bCo2n0E3oSqnfbhPzJEP8Mn2p6dVQai2rTgLrnLIcvL3YQNhVgJCOK7dypVB1fjGU9PvkqYDbryOxDjgzCfXj2iB6Yu-tmurSD5tQXdOvJsJikWlH96HlVtXI8y7vhziQq5Ks_17Dz0G-xnTryTJb-xVl-_PdZ-etg1gC9T8IyLE8-vQd3WCva2DnUUEsMp3nNkR_8yywQWqIpf20QIbJ9BRQS5117CGc2wQd7UALU2s2LXcglFbGTDqi2Ii0qu9fXnocaUXch0A6L1FCxAT7DtxdlOU4nn8AH59BTPNkQ5k-vAESZAAUFLma8l6hYlOWw5U0WUuWkzeBthziVkL9DORyinVRybSfUb0grcYyIO28KcSw2hg_NAI6Co5iBIX4v1ndEiPk4E3oBaYPwP6cZ6-epLHQyPXGUTA1QqKdPU571opvBUdnSpNrOi6hQ7KAYjD8qJAJp03g7EkYfTIFsk04DpL_mBYgJIvdejP-eCXAQqMHFfMAkz8d1OXg11DRSiA6JGr4hRjsShS2KrnkGrfMOsLndtz7ISKTvOiF3LYrfWevay-Rg3h6cKusxzvx4-G02uQxiJ_7oissRV38bApKBjx8j5RITRWEXZSoVmjeIf8C6wmbyJ0TIqKCDxLY6nEqB5aOqzmQgsBRYGfo9QDVMYo0jhYwlnp07BqIMkrpaEQcSk_qiMk--xOzqFJOqc1YMB6sjn8hrNKZwKn4gfh7opHHe3BGml4fBYXcgqrBbwOsOhNGvk3qvzJH15viUOCv5X4xTvbxtR_FJJVxcbCugVDzdjflldKFVJ_w5P2wZOd7IaHwDyOpd8A2Q-0rZmM3eAi4Pmp302h6ytspaRtNIngGkusB9qf9DZrqLrC8hBTOVdkey6SjFHneuoYVx9IIOk1xZS3HKHsnxh5qOXf3rtTd6xa8aIYqn_sEAnqsArm2ZOOL5m51XhDqOn0UjWQ08TTHYZaa1hSbLi6rTD9r8iJ8U0YUcWXmemRBkhlrRdTlYzVjbNnoE4uC-7NVr3iCeZA-nG1QlyTlDrqTUEHDYdqkieleBN6AkxIIMXKLsLGQHOo21qiKaSDgoKSomh6CN4-Vje-TkBwHEmJX-BWZK_5W57USOoMu1pOKy4RQvlROWzOUVDP8aHdb5CDsv5LX1CuirZPI6Ow6JW83oY0EPEJ320spzE6M6QsuohE1QWjvXRDBOyNM4T74yV9qu23wUlINwPJ2eC6-Zk8O-mzKGaYDYuUIow19f60fnCq5tZy85Hh4LhD14cD-nh6CN4uuHTa83hT12WSBqM10YRgFeuZH9iHjk_z8NZy4hWe_N7mOt06w41WhOhoPYWxUtcgHw-r8VpVTSssnV1mKKTXaP3C72GaAUEH22BY9nBU04iBlVk-hkntXTe7-M6Gqk1zxUROnWM2tH9p3wCAGIwf363M8qYEJuqvj9i56fiwkGb2n9fSIOgMMJXyX9Cx6vkfIGKpEvqVjoFnTwbGWbZDRHtd1LsP9QsY2I6BwSY2G6JE1XcAWAU22GuSKjl7fTJcnCmhId2i4_W4xlFypPMVOMEXInVui3vSMexvymNh4Q4aSkuc144TDG70STpnqS5WTOoyqLqdevW59tJ-1acQFJG-4R029Q79c1DFI2MdHIjHzTxciU_0XvFZQC4WOP3dzfcjpYrIT-NGY7MxI58jW9fIP8E_Q50MY5dhCEPjF19Yb6an8Leuh0ujXPegME29la11qC2JNMC1HIlvy8Kcb6ivKZ2GoUSaZBGozeY14NM9k3Z3AEO3h2l-c_JF52WgKk70Q50ZrRMDOSX1OzoYrDx0H_pwlxuN9sQqs_GR4_BeH5YIezFTuo4jqV18jczQNA95AImcEkf2DPfVLCmNFlxPTBpM4auQKrmlYJWkJ1LWYQbD6lD29gMqWGP7IpEwGKI7EnvxTYnYeXZ6G5tmaTm0C1KHNKTAIvLgD0rOK25Fe-P11vata8pTgb2WZqkMhYuicZXS7ZDYbSS2JEAot5bgWn3xPLKYSl9L1d1fEB7no61JrNyOLAUxZVYScft0ewxnpSIWKybwdaEdsmNv28Re626ul4mZ6OPnJAA4pGvE0xA1Lf6SOBEq-v1qJIAe-ipsmwF4OnWUMW2NccmA7gHgGaydZgE7WMSfMe2NKdL54fJDK76I1BVUmHIfkhGUR2H5dwpGWcMxMZ4hemm29OsesW5QNUCooc7862oAmvi1JxX4A5oOflZOnObMDuuOlMALKOi6yHTsWqo-fi_TLYkqLOGdtII1h5SfVFPkJ5alZk_cfBLwOfJSNxVTIt34GUOtzOPRkgKeFBPXWOJWIIFueCMW-Qo9K0Fu_LY-AA1KIoTbg19WCPtJ86MaOQWL-f5YcOzGPWDirFZkmoZI5Iv4KrEZLzH2FIYoetebVX8qVJK6C19YHPUecZfawp3S3JF1e3u4HcZO2KUraJhioEaICsE8fmuFNu79E1IM0HDIbjyBXLeMUCHD8dCuNit0OR0t9yXq8JdZLcohB35hmOuIIA-4lnAuyZmRE0tD-E9EH6QA5cRFp_iOXM7hZ3L6A7pOth7fqv6aQp0i3Hble8VCJAAjTuAtnuGZzzbqJJBCXb-0SOebg8cw9KkWgAfeEVHBRDh_Cw8h2zosSqlzM4tVeZwBm00> . Strangely, I find it useful. I use it as a supplement to the inspector. I hope to be able to pack this tool, and a companion one for generating sequence diagrams based on the execution of a block given as parameter. I see these tools as exploratory tools, not as documentation tools. Best, Kasper,

Dec. 19, 2019

[ANN] TechTalk TODAY âWorking with Spec2 and GTK" BUT TIME CHANGE TO 16h France

by Esteban Lorenzano

Hi, I will give a techtalk today around the work with Spec2 and GTK. But because of personal reasons, I cannot give the talk 17-18h EU, instead, it will be one our earlier. So, this is the appointment: Pharo TechTalk 19 Dec 2019 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM (UTC+01:00) A regular chat about Pharo. Happens on Discord. The Tech talks are open to both members and non-members! Topic: âWorking with Spec2 and GTKâ Here is the event link: https://association.pharo.org/event-3419547 And here is the place where the transmission will be made: https://www.youtube.com/c/EstebanLorenzano/live Iâm sorry for the mess but fatherhood has this issues ;) See you there! Esteban

Dec. 19, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by Hilaire

Sven, Often the intend is wrongly perceived, I am sorry about that. I know about these Pharo books (but not the Pharo with Style which I did not pay attention to), I bought three of them and I wrote the original Morph chapter in the Pharo By Example book, I donated a bit to the Steph proposal for additionnal resources (sorry forgot the name). For me these resources are just obvious, and I just mentioned ones I have good souvenir with when learning at the very beginning. I understand now it felt like I want to ignore the Pharo documentation effort, but it was really not my intend, I think I am over this kind of silly behavior, I am sorry it felt that way. Hilaire Le 18/12/2019 Ã 19:39, Sven Van Caekenberghe a Ã©critÂ : > I consider you a full member of the Pharo community, I have seen you interacting on the mailing lists for many years and I appreciate your work a lot, that is why I was surprised you would not know that there are newer, pharo specific versions of the very old book you mentioned, the Pharo By Example book is itself many years old already. > > Please understand, many people ask for all kinds of documentation, authors put a lot of work in writing or updating documentation, and then it seems to go unnoticed, which is very frustrating. -- Dr. Geo http://drgeo.eu

Dec. 18, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by Sven Van Caekenberghe

Hilaire, I hope you are well. I consider you a full member of the Pharo community, I have seen you interacting on the mailing lists for many years and I appreciate your work a lot, that is why I was surprised you would not know that there are newer, pharo specific versions of the very old book you mentioned, the Pharo By Example book is itself many years old already. Please understand, many people ask for all kinds of documentation, authors put a lot of work in writing or updating documentation, and then it seems to go unnoticed, which is very frustrating. Sven > On 18 Dec 2019, at 19:32, Hilaire <hilaire(a)drgeo.eu> wrote: > > Keep cool and relax, no need to be harsh. Just mention the additional > resources I will happily learn from, I did not see your previous posts. > > I mentioned resources I was happy to use when learning Smalltalk, I am > only distantly following what is going on with Pharo. Last time I code > some bits of Pharo was about 2-3 months ago. Serious Smalltalk code was > likely about 12 months ago. I am recovering from a surgery where a big > part of my large bowel was removed and hoping for no relapse. So excuse > me if I am not up to the standard, I am not even a professional > programmer. My daily job is teaching to teenagers and staying afloat. > > Thanks > > Hilaire > > Le 18/12/2019 Ã 19:00, Sven Van Caekenberghe a Ã©crit : >> Come on, there is >> >> http://books.pharo.org/updated-pharo-by-example/ >> >> which is the same book, but for Pharo, and updated to 5.0 >> >> And >> >> http://books.pharo.org/booklet-WithStyle/ >> >> being written. >> >> Let's appreciate all the effort done by the authors to do the hard work of keeping all this up to date. >> > -- > Dr. Geo > http://drgeo.eu > > >

Dec. 18, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by Hilaire

Keep cool and relax, no need to be harsh.Â Just mention the additional resources I will happily learn from, I did not see your previous posts. I mentioned resources I was happy to use when learning Smalltalk, I am only distantly following what is going on with Pharo. Last time I code some bits of Pharo was about 2-3 months ago. Serious Smalltalk code was likely about 12 months ago. I am recovering from a surgery where a big part of my large bowel was removed and hoping for no relapse. So excuse me if I am not up to the standard, I am not even a professional programmer. My daily job is teaching to teenagers and staying afloat. Thanks Hilaire Le 18/12/2019 Ã 19:00, Sven Van Caekenberghe a Ã©critÂ : > Come on, there is > > http://books.pharo.org/updated-pharo-by-example/ > > which is the same book, but for Pharo, and updated to 5.0 > > And > > http://books.pharo.org/booklet-WithStyle/ > > being written. > > Let's appreciate all the effort done by the authors to do the hard work of keeping all this up to date. > -- Dr. Geo http://drgeo.eu

Dec. 18, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by Sven Van Caekenberghe

Come on, there is http://books.pharo.org/updated-pharo-by-example/ which is the same book, but for Pharo, and updated to 5.0 And http://books.pharo.org/booklet-WithStyle/ being written. Let's appreciate all the effort done by the authors to do the hard work of keeping all this up to date. > On 18 Dec 2019, at 18:30, Hilaire <hilaire(a)drgeo.eu> wrote: > > Hi Steve, > > Did you give a look at the "Smalltalk by Example" and "Smalltalk with > style" ? There are good starters to get an overall idea of the basic > objects and how is written Smalltalk code. It could help to jump in > Pharo then. > > There are very easy reading, the advanced parts may not apply to Pharo > though, but you can then jump to specific Pharo books. > > http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html > > Hilaire > > > > Le 18/12/2019 Ã 09:11, Steve Davies a Ã©crit : >> I'm a career programmer but I'm nearly 60 and sadly I can't absorb >> information like I used to be able to, and I'm just finding Pharo so >> overwhelming - I feel like a maintenance programmer trying to find a >> way into a million lines of code when you don't understand the >> principles of organisation and the conventions of the developers. >> >> Is there no way to have some sort of "progressive revelation" of the >> insides of Pharo? Just documentation on most classes, examples of how >> to use the class, without the implementation being exposed initially? > > -- > Dr. Geo > http://drgeo.eu > > >

Dec. 18, 2019

Re: [Pharo-users] I feel like an overwhelmed maintenance programmer - how to get some toeholds?

by Hilaire

Hi Steve, Did you give a look at the "Smalltalk by Example" and "Smalltalk with style" ? There are good starters to get an overall idea of the basic objects and how is written Smalltalk code. It could help to jump in Pharo then. There are very easy reading, the advanced parts may not apply to Pharo though, but you can then jump to specific Pharo books. http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html Hilaire Le 18/12/2019 Ã 09:11, Steve Davies a Ã©critÂ : > I'm a career programmer but I'm nearly 60 and sadly I can't absorb > information like I used to be able to, and I'm just finding Pharo so > overwhelming - I feel like a maintenanceÂ programmer trying to find a > way into a million lines of code when you don't understand the > principles of organisation and the conventions of the developers. > > Is there no way to have some sort of "progressive revelation" of the > insides of Pharo?Â Just documentation on most classes, examples of how > to use the class, without the implementation being exposed initially? -- Dr. Geo http://drgeo.eu

Dec. 18, 2019