January 2025 - Pharo-users - lists.pharo.org

Pharo News of the Week 1 and 2 2025

by Marcus Denker

The First week everyone was on holidays, 2025 thus starts with week 2. - [Video] Talk from UK Smalltalk users group: Maximiliano Tabacman: Electronic Roleplaying Assistant - 27 March 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIoTkXNU-Sc - [Blog Post] Comparing SUnit with RSpec https://all-objects-all-the-time.st/#/blog/posts/11 # The week on the Pharo Issue Tracker # Pharo 12 - [Backport to P12] Improve word-by-word text navigation + tests #17285 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17285 - Backport fix-SDL-default-renderer-by-platform #17579 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17579 - use Spec v1.3.4 #17574 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17574 - Move compiled method installation code from compile to install step #17469 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17469 # Fixes - Fix word jumping p12 #17584 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17584 - 17576-Invalid-comment-is-breaking-CommentTests #17577 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17577 - New cursor jumping #17476 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17476 - Add CompiledBlock>>#browse and BlockClosure>>#browse #17335 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17335 # Features - Fix 13825. Create a new sorter for the completion engine . #17473 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17473 # VM - Build on old linux server #898 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/898 - DojoVM 2025-01-07 #896 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/896 - fix C warnings related to self assignments #894 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/894 - Forward port 10 to 12 #893 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/893 - Fix some Slang tests #891 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/891 - Add a dumb isNotNil implementation (the same as notNil) #890 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/890 - PIC Cleanup #889 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/889 - normalize C variables #875 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/875 - Lots of cleanups #874 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/874 - Removing duplicated code #857 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/857 - Fix warning absolute value #782 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/782 # Spec - changes on SPPresenter for resizing windows #1693 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1693 - use comprehensive option name #1691 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1691 - A test that checks whether the elements stay within the window's dimensions after resizing. #1688 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1688 - enhancement(tables): split formatting vs evaluation #1686 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1686 - default "ok" button in dialogs needs to be set to "ok" #1685 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1685 - SpPaginatorPageMorph and SpPaginatorSelectionMorph fixes for theme #1646 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1646 # Compiler - Forward port 17469 to P13: Move compiled method installation code from compile to install step #17587 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17587 - Fix string parse literals #17571 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17571 - Symbol should not depend on AST (Fix dependency test) #17580 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17580 - 17569 deprecate setparse options #17570 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17570 - Pharo13: Adding simple comments to RBClass methods #17575 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17575

Jan. 17, 2025

Pharo News of the Week 52/2024

by Marcus Denker

# Pharo News of the Week 52/2024 This is the changekog for the last week of 2024: # The week on the Pharo Issue Tracker # Fixes - Resolution for issue 17548 - Removed Network setting BlabEmail #17564 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17564 - Duplicate class refactoring #17558 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17558 - 17493-Dropping-a-fileout-raises-an-error #17533 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17533 - fix search of element in SpCollectionListModel. #1681 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1681 # Enhancements - enhance(morphic drop-handler): Better management of drop handler #17562 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17562 - Update FFI generation code to not generate multiple time the same methods #17559 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17559 # VM - Fix linking of UnixOSProcessPlugin - Remove dead code #888 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/888 - Fix failing tests #887 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/887 - fixing-classTag-tests #886 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/886 - Cleaning #881 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/881 - Druid fix vm #880 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/880 # Iceberg - Branch: PrefilledCommit1852, Fixes # 1852 #1857 https://github.com/pharo-vcs/iceberg/pull/1857 # Cleanups - Cleanup scale factor methods #17555 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17555 - Remove users of asFileName #17561 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17561 - Remove unused code, user of asFileName #925 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/925 - Fix SpDemoPresenter stupid uneecessary dependencies #1689 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1689 - Better comment and removed unused instance variable #17560 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17560 # Compiler - Rename AST -> OC #17553 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17553 - P13: post AST to OC renaming #17566 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/17566

Jan. 17, 2025

New VM Release v10.3.3

by Guillermo Polito

Hi all, Weâve published a new VM release (v10.3.3) to be used with Pharo versions 10 through 13. 10.3.3 includes all changes in 10.3.2 (that was rolled back) plus several improvements. Highlights: - improves the naming schema of built artifacts to differentiate releases from intermediate/nightly builds - is built on the old file server (that we recovered!) to support compatibility with older GLibC versions - builds and run properly on newer linux systems (we fixed a couple of linking and compilation issues with newer versions of gcc) - many improvements in the perm space Please find in the wiki information about the build and versions https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/wiki Full release changes log https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/releases/tag/v10.3.3 Finally, a big thanks to MaxLeske and Norbert for testing, and to everybody who contributed even in the previous conversations. Cheers, G

Jan. 16, 2025

All UKSTUG presentations are now available on YouTube

by UK Smalltalk

Hello, We have recently moved the recordings of the UKSTUG online presentations from Vimeo to YouTube. The recordings are now available at https://www.youtube.com/@UKSTUG . We are also looking for presenters for our 2025 online meetings. If you anything worth sharing, please let us know! Giovanni

Jan. 8, 2025

Re: [Pharo-dev] "Evaluation of SUnit" â New blog post on all: objects all: theTime

by stephane ducasse

Thanks for sharing it with us. It is great! > On 22 Nov 2024, at 23:10, Yanni Chiu <yannix7db(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > The blog post has "Nobody thought about automating that process. Until > Kent Beck did." That is not accurate, AFAIK. I believe it was in Kent > Beck's original EXtreme Programming book where he says the practices > were gathered from various Smalltalk shops he consulted at during the > Smalltalk heyday in the early 90's. > > For what it's worth, here's the history I know. Around 1993, in > Toronto, I was working at Footprint Software on VisualBanker (a suite > of code to support banking that 4 of the 5 major Canadian banks > bought). With my programming buddy (no "pair programming" at the time) > our task was to build a persistence framework (supporting Relational, > ObjectFiler, and in-memory). > > My task in a previous job was to convert (the AT&T Unix) C compiler to > support the "new" ANSI C standard. Thankfully, I was provided with a > test suite of C code, so that if it compiled without errors, then the > compiler was standard compliant. So, looking for something similar to > the ANSI C test suite I'd encountered, I set up test cases where all > methods starting with "test" would be run, and ran the tests against > all the backend data stores. The next day, my programming buddy > (George), who started at 6am (to have a faster commute) tells me this > test thing is great, and shows me the UI he built so we could just > push a button. We can check the same behaviour for all backends, and > we can coordinate our code changes through the tests (to mitigate our > different schedule). > > A year later, the company's product was deemed slow, so they > contracted Kent Beck to review our code base. He eventually comes > around to us. We showed him what we did with tests, and then he just > paused for about a minute staring out the window. We thought we were > doing something really bad. A few months later, George said to me "did > you see the SUnit thing posted on comp.lang.smalltalk". The basic > "test"-prefixed test cases were there, but with the addition of the > setUp and tearDown concept. > > Every once in a while I think to write this up. The "Nobody thought > about automating..." words pushed me over this time. Maybe 15 years > ago, I was able to find the original comp.lang.smalltalk SUnit > posting, but could not locate it this time when I wanted to verify the > dates. > > Yanni Chiu, > Smalltalk oldtimer, Toronto > > On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 8:58â¯AM Koen De Hondt > <koen(a)all-objects-all-the-time.st> wrote: >> >> Dear Pharo users and developers, >> >> I wrote a blog post in which I evaluate SUnit. >> >> Enjoy reading it! >> >> Ciao, >> Koen >> StÃ©phane Ducasse http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr 06 30 93 66 73 "If you knew today was your last day on earth, what would you do differently? ....ESPECIALLY if, by doing something different, today might not be your last day on earth.â Calvin & Hobbes

Jan. 7, 2025

Re: [Pharo-dev] Re: "Evaluation of SUnit" â New blog post on all: objects all: theTime

by Richard O'Keefe

"statically defined test suite, perhaps written by others" fairly hits it off. I once had the privilege of supervising a student who was working with the test suite for a major betting chain. (No, I'm not going to name it.) The official test suite was a Microsoft Word document and he was trying to extract as much as he could to turn it into scripts. Too many of the tests had the form "do this, and then look at the screen", with nothing said about what to expect. And some absolutely crucial things were not tested at all. The one that comes to mind is that every bet had to be remembered for a legal minimum of five years. This is one of the areas where sUnit shines, because Smalltalk shines. You can inject UI events and you can capture UI outputs without leaving the single environment. You use the SAME testing framework for financial calculations, network interactions, and UI. So I do think that sUnit was innovative, just not for running test suites automatically. It would be interesting to see a comparison that involved Cucumber. If you want to talk about tests that the customer can read, you have to say something about Cucumber. I note that the big selling point for COBOL, back in the day, was that it was based on English so managers would be able to read it. Hah sarcastic hah. On Wed, 1 Jan 2025 at 09:16, Yanni Chiu <yannix7db(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi Koen, > > I understand that as a writer, something like âNobody thought about automatingâ¦â does more to draw a reader in to reading more of the article, than something like âNobody had ever published a public domain framework that â¦â. As your reply says, your intended meaning may be âpublished â¦ for the first timeâ, but I think very few readers would take that meaning. In my own experience, automated testing was a concept I encountered from earlier programmers, and Richardâs post also confirms that automated testing was commonly known. > > Youâre right about the âopen sourceâ environment of the early 90âs. Employees/programmers were unlikely to publish code into the public domain at that time. I think Kent was in a unique position to tour various Smalltalk teams, distill out key processes and techniques, and publish about it. SUnit is a great distillation of the idea. > > The actual unit test framework code is not the key idea. People knew of using automated test suites. But flipping to another browser and adding a #testZZZ method, while coding for your development task, is something that seems to just emerge from the Smalltalk environment - once you determine that you want to have a test suite to help you code. Previously, some statically defined test suite, perhaps written by others, is used to verify code. By putting the #testZZZ definitions in the hands of the developer, the whole waterfall coding model is upended. > > Regards, > Yanni > > > On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 10:44 AM Koen De Hondt <koen(a)all-objects-all-the-time.st> wrote: >> >> Hi Yanni, >> >> Thank you for sharing your story. It gives another view on history. Maybe you should share it with a wider audience. >> >> As always, the people publishing about something for the first time get the credits. >> >> When I wrote "Nobody thought about automating that process. Until Kent Beck did.â, I meant that he was the one who published about SUnit for the first time (and that is why I linked to the publication). I am sure that many other people, like you and George, had tools to automate tests, in one form or another. After all, Smalltalkers build their own tools to automate repetitive tasks. That is a super power Smalltalkers have compared to developers using other programming languages. >> >> You write about 1993. Back then, it was hard to share code/projects/software with the world. These days, people put their code in a public repo. But still that does not prove that the underlying ideas are original. It just proves that they did something creative with those ideas, just like in 1993. But at least it is clear for the rest of the community who is building software based on those ideas. >> >> So I think publishing work â even early work â, in the form of code or written documents, is crucial to keep a trace of where ideas originate. >> >> Thanks again for sharing. I like stories about the history of software development and I enjoyed your story. >> >> Best regards, >> Koen >> >> > On 22 Nov 2024, at 23:10, Yanni Chiu <yannix7db(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > The blog post has "Nobody thought about automating that process. Until >> > Kent Beck did." That is not accurate, AFAIK. I believe it was in Kent >> > Beck's original EXtreme Programming book where he says the practices >> > were gathered from various Smalltalk shops he consulted at during the >> > Smalltalk heyday in the early 90's. >> > >> > For what it's worth, here's the history I know. Around 1993, in >> > Toronto, I was working at Footprint Software on VisualBanker (a suite >> > of code to support banking that 4 of the 5 major Canadian banks >> > bought). With my programming buddy (no "pair programming" at the time) >> > our task was to build a persistence framework (supporting Relational, >> > ObjectFiler, and in-memory). >> > >> > My task in a previous job was to convert (the AT&T Unix) C compiler to >> > support the "new" ANSI C standard. Thankfully, I was provided with a >> > test suite of C code, so that if it compiled without errors, then the >> > compiler was standard compliant. So, looking for something similar to >> > the ANSI C test suite I'd encountered, I set up test cases where all >> > methods starting with "test" would be run, and ran the tests against >> > all the backend data stores. The next day, my programming buddy >> > (George), who started at 6am (to have a faster commute) tells me this >> > test thing is great, and shows me the UI he built so we could just >> > push a button. We can check the same behaviour for all backends, and >> > we can coordinate our code changes through the tests (to mitigate our >> > different schedule). >> > >> > A year later, the company's product was deemed slow, so they >> > contracted Kent Beck to review our code base. He eventually comes >> > around to us. We showed him what we did with tests, and then he just >> > paused for about a minute staring out the window. We thought we were >> > doing something really bad. A few months later, George said to me "did >> > you see the SUnit thing posted on comp.lang.smalltalk". The basic >> > "test"-prefixed test cases were there, but with the addition of the >> > setUp and tearDown concept. >> > >> > Every once in a while I think to write this up. The "Nobody thought >> > about automating..." words pushed me over this time. Maybe 15 years >> > ago, I was able to find the original comp.lang.smalltalk SUnit >> > posting, but could not locate it this time when I wanted to verify the >> > dates. >> > >> > Yanni Chiu, >> > Smalltalk oldtimer, Toronto >> > >> > On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 8:58â¯AM Koen De Hondt >> > <koen(a)all-objects-all-the-time.st> wrote: >> >> >> >> Dear Pharo users and developers, >> >> >> >> I wrote a blog post in which I evaluate SUnit. >> >> >> >> Enjoy reading it! >> >> >> >> Ciao, >> >> Koen >> >>

Jan. 2, 2025