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[BetaTesting] [ANN] Pharo-1.1-11400-rc1dev10.06.1
by Mariano Martinez Peck June 14, 2010

June 14, 2010

Hi folks. There is a new Pharo 1.1 rc2 image for beta testing. It is based in PharoCore rc2 11400. A little remark is that this is the first release candidate, not the second one. There was a problem when building the PharoCore rc1 and thus, we used PharoCore RC2. To be concistent we call it Pharo 1.1 rc2 to this image. We are getting closer to the stable release of Pharo 1.1 so we would really appreaciate any kind of feedback. Use it, load your packages and applications, run tests, etc. The download link is: https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/27159/Pharo-1.1-11400-rc2dev10.06.… Cheers Mariano

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Priority of WeakArray finalizationProcess
by Joachim Geidel June 13, 2010

June 13, 2010

While testing JNIPort on Pharo 1.0 and Pharo 1.1, I noticed that in Pharo 1.0, a JVM (a wrapper object for the Java Virtual Machine) could be initialized in ca. 4 seconds, while this needed 11 to 12 seconds in Pharo 1.1. When I profiled the JVM startup in 1.1, the profile reported that less than 20% of the time was spent there; the rest was not accounted for in the report. In Squeak 4.1, I encountered a deadlock problem related to Squeak's current WeakRegistry implementation when the JVM is started. This problem disappeared when I changed the finalizationProcess of WeakArray such that it runs at systemBackgroundPriority instead of userBackgroundPriority. Applying the same change to Pharo 1.1 makes a big difference. The JVM starts in 4.4 seconds, approximately matching the time it takes in Pharo 1.0. Starting the JVM in Squeak 4.1 is about 20% faster than Pharo 1.1. As the difference is in the part which is not accounted for by the time profiler, it is probably due to the differences in the implementation of WeakIdentityKeyDictionary which have an impact on the performance of the finalizationProcess. I am not sure if changing the priority of the finalizationProcess could possibly break something, and I also do not yet understand why changing the priority makes such a big difference both in Squeak and Pharo. How should this issue be handled? Should I add this as issues to the bug tracking tools for Pharo and Squeak respectively? Cheers, Joachim Geidel

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Re: [Pharo-users] [squeak-dev] Priority of WeakArray finalizationProcess
by Joachim Geidel June 13, 2010

June 13, 2010

Am 12.06.10 21:47 schrieb Levente Uzonyi: > On Sat, 12 Jun 2010, Joachim Geidel wrote: >> I am not sure if changing the priority of the finalizationProcess could >> possibly break something, and I also do not yet understand why changing the >> priority makes such a big difference both in Squeak and Pharo. > > I think normal processes (with priority 40) could starve the finalization > process if it's priority were <= 40 (#systemBackgroundPriority is 20). That's true, I hadn't thought of that. >> How should this issue be handled? Should I add this as issues to the bug >> tracking tools for Pharo and Squeak respectively? > > I uploaded a fix to the Inbox: Collections-ul.362. If you're using a Trunk > image, just update it and load this package to your image. If you're using > a stock 4.1 image, then the easiest way to get the fix, is to add the > following line to the end of WeakKeyDictionary >> #finalizeValues > > cleanUpAfterRemove ifTrue: [ self fixCollisionsFrom: array size ] > > If you have the time, please check if this fixes the issue for Squeak. Unfortunately, this doesn't help with the deadlock issue. Cheers, Joachim Geidel

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Using Pharo 1.1
by Sven Van Caekenberghe June 11, 2010

June 11, 2010

Hi, Yet another question. I keep hearing and reading that Pharo 1.1 is quite usable and a lot better than 1.0 that I am currently using. Is that true ? If I download Pharo-1.1-11367-Betadev10.05.1 how do I then keep up to date with the development that is presumably still going on ? It seems like only Pharo-Core images have this 'software update' world menu item ? Or do I just have to keep on downloading the lastest released beta ? Sorry for all the beginner questions... Thx, Sven

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Alien for Squeak 4.1/Pharo 1.1?
by Joachim Geidel June 11, 2010

June 11, 2010

I somehow managed to load Alien into both Squeak 4.1 and Pharo 1.1. You can see what I had to do in the installation instructions for JNIPort on SqueakSource. It's not for the faint of heart... ;-) In Squeak, this meant removing the Alien-Prereqs package and all Parser/Scanner/MethodNode changes, as they are redundant or obsolete in Squeak 4.1. I have a version of the Alien-Core Monticello package which loads cleanly in Squeak 4.1, if anybody is interested. However, this package does not load in Pharo 1.1 beta 11367 - some of the changes I removed still seem to be needed there. What are the plans for Alien? When will it be made available for Squeak 4.1 and Pharo 1.1? I am interested in this because I need Alien as the base for JNIPort, and I would like to at least run the JNIPort test suite on a stable version of Alien before officially releasing JNIPort 2.0. Joachim Geidel

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Twitter Blog: More Than Dabbling
by Sven Van Caekenberghe June 10, 2010

June 10, 2010

Dabble has been bought by Twitter ! http://blog.twitter.com/2010/06/more-than-dabbling.html Let's hope they keep using Smalltalk. In any case, congratulations to Avi en co. Sven

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JNIPort preview for Pharo available on SqueakSource
by Joachim Geidel June 9, 2010

June 9, 2010

I have made a preview release of JNIPort for Pharo/Squeak available on SqueakSource: http://www.squeaksource.com/JNIPort.html JNIPort is a Smalltalk library which allows Java code to be invoked from Smalltalk. It acts as a bridge between the world of Smalltalk objects and a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) where Java code is executing. If you want to know what can be done with JNIPort, see http://philemonworks.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/google-api-access-from-smallta lk-using-jniport/ for an example. Installation instructions are on the Wiki at SqueakSource. See http://jniport.wikispaces.com/ for more information about JNIPort. The current state of the Pharo/Squeak version of JNIPort (as of 7 June 2010): * Callbacks from Java to Smalltalk are not yet supported. * In contrast to VisualWorks and Dolphin, JNIPort does not create ghost classes as wrappers for Java classes, but creates Â³realÂ² classes which can be seen in the system browser. It also does not copy prototypes of CompiledMethods when a wrapper class or a Java class is created, because this causes VM failures in Pharo 1.0. Instead, methods are compiled from source code. This has a performance impact, of course. * Another difference from the VisualWorks and Dolphin versions is that wrappers for Java methods without arguments donÂ¹t have selectors ending with an awkward Â³_nullÂ² suffix. * JNIPort has been developed and tested with Pharo 1.0 on Mac OS X 10.6.3. If it works in Squeak and on other operating systems has yet to be tested. * I have briefly tested JNIPort with Pharo 1.1 beta 11367, but this needed some manual modifications of Alien Â without them Alien causes problems in Pharo 1.1. * In Pharo 1.1, starting a JVM needs 11 seconds vs. 4 seconds in Pharo 1.0. I donÂ¹t know yet why. * I donÂ¹t have a Metacello configuration yet. The next steps will be: * Adding support for callbacks from Java to Smalltalk. * Testing it on more platforms. * Reorganization of the documentation on the JNIPort wiki, and addition of Pharo/Squeak specific documentation similar to the documentation for the VisualWorks version. * Release of JNIPort 2.0 for VisualWorks and Pharo/Squeak when everything is stable. This will be after the release of Pharo 1.1. If it works in Squeak 4.1 or on Linux or Windows, please let me know, especially if you had to do something which might be worth mentioning in the installation instructions. Have fun with JNIPort, and let me know if it works! Joachim Geidel

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Re: [Pharo-users] [Pharo-project] [JOB] We are Looking for a Pharo Engineer
by Marcus Denker June 7, 2010

June 7, 2010

On Jun 7, 2010, at 3:54 PM, Niko Schwarz wrote: > Is there a website with this text that I can link to? > http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/blog/2010-06-07 Marcus -- Marcus Denker -- http://www.marcusdenker.de INRIA Lille -- Nord Europe. Team RMoD.

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[JOB] We are Looking for a Pharo Engineer
by Marcus Denker June 7, 2010

June 7, 2010

Hello, INRIA RMOD is looking for a full-time engineer for helping with Pharo development. As researchers, we need a really great system to explore new ideas with. The job of the engineer is to help us by improving the infrastructure we use for our work. What this of course means is that it's kind of a cool job: work in a research lab, but no paper writing, no teaching, no administration. In addition: - live in France (one hour from Paris, 1h20 from London, 35 min from Brussels) - try a lot of good beers (our office is just 10km from the border to Belgium) - french food - code all the day in Smalltalk and a bit of C Apparently from what the DHR services told us, the salary will depend on years of expertise and diplomas. We can think that 2700 Euros (before final taxes) should be a good working number for a candidate of the experience we are looking for. In France the employer pays already social security and pension. So the salary already includes lots (and lots) of deductions compared to e.g. a german brutto salary. Lille is an active city but not expensive (lot of students...), centrally located with good connections by train to everywhere (including CDG and Brussels airports). The job will to continue making Pharo better - better tools - better network support - better compiler infrastructure - improve the VM - help with day-to-day bug fixing and constant improvement Therefore we are looking for a candidate with some years of Smalltalk (possible Pharo/Squeak) background. Duration: 30 months Starting date: October 2010 Location: Lille (no remote job possible) Official Job Description and Application via: http://bit.ly/dyhdba Deadline: 15 July 2010 More about INRIA Lille: http://www.inria.fr/lille/ INRIA in General: http://www.inria.fr Engineers at INRIA: http://www.inria.fr/travailler/metiers/accompagnement/dev_applications.en.h… Lille: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille http://www.mairie-lille.fr/en http://wikitravel.org/en/Lille Do not hesitate to contact us for more information. Stef/Marcus -- Marcus Denker -- http://www.marcusdenker.de INRIA Lille -- Nord Europe. Team RMoD.

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Next smalltalk meetup in cologne
by Norbert Hartl June 7, 2010

June 7, 2010

Hi! Just a short reminder that the next Cologne Smalltalk Meetup will be happening this Thursday at the usual time and location. For any details have a look at [1] and [2]. Cheers, Alex [1] http://colstme.selfish.org/events/stammtisch03 [2] http://colstme.selfish.org/blog/2010-06-02

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