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Re: [Pharo-users] More GSoC ideas wanted, 3 days left ....

by Javier PimÃ¡s

Are we still on time for the party? *Title:* Smalltalk Native-Code Debugger. *Level*: Intermediate. *Possible mentor:* Guido Chari. *Possible second mentor:* Javier PimÃ¡s. *Description:* Smalltalk is a powerful environment for software developing. It allows the development of high-level abstractions, and it is highly dynamic and reflective, which promotes analyzing and changing objects at run-time. Debuggers are essential tools, particularly in Smalltalk because they allow developers to understand a program as well as to find and fix defects as they are running. Debugging native applications, on the other hand, is very hard. Many native applications can't be developed using high level abstractions. Furthermore, as they consist of native-code, debugging them requires understanding and modification of very low-level operations on raw memory at run-time [1], and also a close interaction with the operating system [2][3]. Using Smalltalk to control and debug low-level code would be a great aid in the native-code development process. It would allow not only to control programs status and trace, but also to easily develop a myriad of high-level tools that analyze and modify native-code as it runs. *Technical Details:* There are many different kinds of debuggers, and many mechanisms are already mature for implementing features in them[4]. Warp[5] is a recently born project to implement on Pharo a wrapper for the PTrace system call, the essential operating system debugging API. With the addition of already existing powerful high-level tools for low-level programming, as NativeBoost[6] and Waterfall[7], this project will allow to have a native debugger interface for any process from a Smalltalk image, and create a complete ecosystem for Native-Code developing from Smalltalk. The first steps will include understanding the ptrace system call, and about x86 instructions coding and decoding. This can be done by completing the wrapper of ptrace, which consists of only one function with many different functionalities and improving the disassembler for x86 binary code. After this the student will be able to develop tools for aiding in native-code debugging, like a specialized inspectors and debuggers for watching the value of variables, adding breakpoints, watchpoints, modifying memory and code. *Benefits to the Student:* * gain experience in high-level and low-level programming. * learn about how debuggers work under the hood * gain experience on the usage and development of a complete Smalltalk native-code development toolchain. * learn about native-code assembling and disassembling *Benefits to the Community:* * Lately, there has been more and more evidence that high-level written software for low-level development is starting to succeed. Smalltalk provides an ideal platform for exploring this domain because of its powerful reflective capabilities. NativeBoost already promotes lot of new possibilities for working dynamically on the Pharo environment with complex low-level tasks. More tools for having a complete and outstanding tool-chain are needed and the native debugging interface is one of the most prominent and promising. * A native-code debugger will help Smalltalk VM and low-level programmers, because it will leverage all their Smalltalk programming skills into low-level programming. It could even bring closer non-VM programmers to VM code, as it would remove a barrier of entrance to VM programming. * Having a fully working native-code debugger would be a killer app that can attract lots of low-level developers to Smalltalk, specially Virtual Machine and C/C++ programmers. Cheers, Guido and Javier. [1] http://mikecvet.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/ptrace-tutorial/ [2] http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~courses/coe518/LinuxJournal/elj2002-103-ptrace1.p… [3] http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~courses/coe518/LinuxJournal/elj2002-104-ptrace2.p… [4] How debuggers work: algorithms, data structures, and architecture, Jonathan B. Rosenberg, ISBN: 0-471-14966-7 [5] http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~melkyades/Warp [6] https://code.google.com/p/nativeboost/ [7] http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~mate/Waterfall On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 8:36 AM, Janko MivÅ¡ek <janko.mivsek(a)eranova.si>wrote: > Dear Pharoers, > > Ideas are slowly coming, 14 so far, but this is way below the 30+ in > previous years. So, stretch your brain, come with some more ideas, which > will be interesting for potential students and of course useful for our > community. Students you are again welcome to propose such idea by your > own. One student idea for now! > > Ideas so far: http://gsoc2013.esug.org/ideas > > To propose an idea just respond to this post by fulfilling this idea > template: > > Title: > > Level: (beginner, intermediate, advanced) > > Possible mentor: (if already known) > > Possible second mentor: (if already known) > > Description > > Technical Details > > Benefits to the Student > > Benefits to the Community > > Best regards > Serge and Janko, > your this year GSoC admins > > > -- > Janko MivÅ¡ek > Aida/Web > Smalltalk Web Application Server > http://www.aidaweb.si > > -- Lic. Javier PimÃ¡s Ciudad de Buenos Aires

March 29, 2013

[ANN] Fuel Release Version 1.9

by Martin Dias

Hi all, We are happy to announce Fuel 1.9. Fuel is an open-source general-purpose object serialization framework developed in Pharo. You can find more information on our website [1]. The default set of packages of this version already comes in Pharo 2.0, so you it's not necessary to install it there. However, Fuel also works out-of-the-box in Pharo from 1.1 up to 2.0, as well as in Squeak 4.1 up to 4.4. You can see our documentation [2] for complete installation and use guides. Changes: - (feature) DoIt and not-installed CompiledMethods are fully serialized by default. - (fix) Date & DateAndTime (thanks Cami and Marcus) (already included in Fuel 1.8.1 and 1.8.2). - (feature) New hooks methods #fuelNew and #fuelNew: for custom instantiation (see "Hooking instance creation" in Customizing the Graph). - Globals: - Added #globalEnvironment: to specify where the globals are looked-up. (see "Changing the environment" in Managing Globals). - Explicit references to "Smalltalk globals" changed to "self class environment". - A SystemDictionary instance is not treated as global when it is not "Smalltalk globals". - Documentation: - General update - New Format Migration section. - New Built-in Header Support section. - (feature) Put back FLSerializer>>on:. - (optimization) New clusters for SmallInteger. - (optimization) New clusters for most common collections. - (feature) Built-in support for header (See Built-in Header Support): - pre and post materialization actions (clean closures). - attach additional objects. - materialize only the header. - (fix) Safer substitutions (see FLPluggableSubstitutionTest>>testPrivateExcluded). - (feature) Materialize .fuel files when drag&dropped in the image. - (cleanup) Removed unneeded cluster: FLWellKnownObjectsCluster. [1]: http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel [2]: http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel/Version1.9/Documentation<http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel/Version1.8/Documentation> We want to thank developers of the community that enrich the project with code, issue reports and ideas. Have fun! Martin (on behalf of Mariano and Max, who worked a lot on this version)

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] in anybody out there? who uses 2.0?

by Yanni Chiu

On 28/03/13 11:40 AM, Yanni Chiu wrote: > On 28/03/13 2:32 AM, smalltalk wrote: >> which os do you use? > > It's MacOSX 10.5.8 (with a VM I built about 6 months ago), but my > build/deploy is Debian Linux. I meant to say that the latest PharoVM from pharo.org is used on Debian.

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] More GSoC ideas wanted, 3 days left ....

by S Krish

* SmalltalkOpenCL https://www.khronos.org/opencl/ Level: Advanced Possible mentor: TB Indentified Possible second mentor: TB Indentified Description: * Build the interface from Pharo to OpenCL.* *This will automatically provide a great opening for Pharo to work with the underlying OpenCL libraries for effective use of multi CPU cores and across GPU's. Infact a Apache Hadoop like capability to do a map reduce can also be leveraged that will make it immensely beneficial for the enterprise stakeholders. Sometimes the very capability does exist is more important than the actual utilization in deciding the use of technology in enterprise units. ( This along with a proper interface to MQ / MQ like messaging interface will be a great platform for enterprise computing ) * Technical Details: In this project the student will: - define and implement an interface to the OpenCL C library ** - work on porting some existing samples to Pharo Smalltalk Benefits to the Student: The student gains a huge understanding of the current trends in parallel programming of modern processors across various hardwares. The student should have good understanding and grasp of C / C++ as well ability to work FFI in Pharo Smalltalk. ** Benefits to the Community: - An interface to an industry standard platform for parallel programming * On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 5:06 AM, Esteban A. Maringolo <emaringolo(a)gmail.com>wrote: > drush66 wrote > > On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Janko MivÅ¡ek < > > > janko.mivsek@ > > > >wrote: > > Title: libev integration in Pharo image and VM > > > > Description: libev (http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libev.html) is high > > performance event loop library > > helps handling large number of concurrent connections and sources of > async > > events. It has been used > > for a long time as networking library of Node.js. To be used in Pharo > > suitable interface in image and quite > > possibly in VM would be needed. > > > > ... > > > > Benefits to the Community: Having efficient event driven library > available > > in Smalltalk would open possibility of writing efficient > > servers in Smalltalk that can handle large number of concurrent > > connections. > > Having an efficient event loop would give us a great tool to handle > concurrent connections in a evented manner. Doing those with blocks and > objects will be a pleasure. > > But please consider Node.js is using libuv now > (https://github.com/joyent/libuv) as a common layer for most platforms. > > Regards > > > > -- > View this message in context: > http://forum.world.st/More-GSoC-ideas-wanted-3-days-left-tp4678354p4678494.… > Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > >

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] in anybody out there? who uses 2.0?

by Yanni Chiu

On 28/03/13 2:32 AM, smalltalk wrote: > which os do you use? It's MacOSX 10.5.8 (with a VM I built about 6 months ago), but my build/deploy is Debian Linux.

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] in anybody out there? who uses 2.0?

by Yanni Chiu

On 28/03/13 3:11 AM, Marcus Denker wrote: > > On Mar 28, 2013, at 4:56 AM, Yanni Chiu <yanni-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA(a)public.gmane.org> wrote: >> >> Another thing I've noticed is occasional sluggishness in the UI. >> It's hard to pinpoint, I often feel like my clicks are being lost. >> > I have not seen that one. After some more usage I'll pinpoint where it's happening, since it interrupts the train of thought otherwise. >> The behaviour of the TestRunner was odd. Eventually I discovered >> running tests via the Nautilus browser, but the UI feedback is >> extremely confusing for "abstract" test cases. I still don't quite >> understand the results I see there, so I do a final run of the >> tests in the TestRunner. >> > Odd in which sense? related to the progress bar? The TestRunner was sluggish when selecting test cases. This was the case in Pharo-1.4 too, but a little worse in Pharo-2.0. I had some tests that caused the UI to stop responding (had to kill the image, but the image's cpu usage was normal). Once the test cases passed, I've not seen the problem again. The main problem is that if I see a test failure in the TestRunner. Then when I try to browse that test case, the actual test code is in a superclass. But, it's unclear how to invoke that test case for the subclass through Nautilus, and it's not clear where the test result is shown in Nautilus (i.e. where is the green icon when the actual test method is in the superclass). >> Another strange issue I had with test cases was to do with the >> interaction of the deprecation warnings. In by build script, I >> run: Deprecation raiseWarning: false. Deprecation showWarning: >> false. so the build can run headless. It took me a few hours, and a >> careful single stepping, to find that the deprecation exceptions >> were being swallowed. I'm sure the TestRunner did not behave this >> way before. If you ran a test, you would still see the deprecation >> exceptions. It was really frustrating to see your test fail, but >> have the stack cleared out before you could debug the exception >> that caused the test failure. >> > Can you add a bug tracker entry for that one? https://pharo.fogbugz.com/default.asp?10166

March 28, 2013

GLMMorphPresentation

by Jesus NuÃ±ez

Hello everyone, Does anybody have the full definition of GLMMorphPresentation such that is usable with Glamour, especifically with the GLMCompositePresentation?. Actually the only method it defines is #renderGlamorouslyOn:. On the other hand in my installed version of Glamour, GLMTabulator does not have the #using: method and in the monticello repositories does not seems to be a version that has it. In Moose Book=>Building browsers with Glamour=>custom presentations section (http://www.themoosebook.org/book/internals/glamour/presentations/custom) it is used for embeed a widget from Morphic. which is exacly what I need. If somebody knows the version used in the examples please let me know it. Thanks in advance, Jesus NuÃ±ez

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] More GSoC ideas wanted, 3 days left ....

by Andrei Vasile Chis

A short idea for a GSoC project to improve the debugger. Cheers, Andrei ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Improving the inspection of expressions in the debugger Level: beginner/intermediate Possible mentor: Andrei Chis Possible second mentor: Nicolas Passerini, Tudor Girba Description: The debugger is a central tool in any programming language, as it helps developers understand the dynamic behaviour of applications. Furthermore, in Smalltalk, it can also be used to write code and thus extend applications while they are running. One important aspect that is missing in the current Pharo debugger, is the ability to view the value of intermediate expressions involved in method calls. For example consider the call: ^ self doSomething: (anArray at: 2) with: aStream next onlyIf: aCondition isValid. In order to view the values of the expressions (anArray at: 2), (aStream next) and (aCondition isValid) we have to directly go into the actual method call. Furthermore, viewing the return value can be more difficult, if we do not store it into a variable. The goal of this project is to add support for exploring these kind of expressions by using dedicated widgets. For example, one alternative might be adding pseudo variables into inspectors, while another might consist in using popups that display these values for any expression selected in the editor. Technical Details: The student will have to understand how the debugger works, and will have to familiarise himself with the new debugging infrastructure. Also, he'll have to look into at least a framework for building UIs (Spec/Glamour). Benefits to the Student: He will get a deep understanding of how debugging is done, on how the debugger works and he'll also interact with a framework for building UIs. Benefits to the Community: The community will bet a better debugger, in which values passed and returned by methods could be easily explored using different widgets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Janko MivÅ¡ek <janko.mivsek(a)eranova.si> wrote: > Dear Pharoers, > > Ideas are slowly coming, 14 so far, but this is way below the 30+ in > previous years. So, stretch your brain, come with some more ideas, which > will be interesting for potential students and of course useful for our > community. Students you are again welcome to propose such idea by your > own. One student idea for now! > > Ideas so far: http://gsoc2013.esug.org/ideas > > To propose an idea just respond to this post by fulfilling this idea > template: > > Title: > > Level: (beginner, intermediate, advanced) > > Possible mentor: (if already known) > > Possible second mentor: (if already known) > > Description > > Technical Details > > Benefits to the Student > > Benefits to the Community > > Best regards > Serge and Janko, > your this year GSoC admins > > > -- > Janko MivÅ¡ek > Aida/Web > Smalltalk Web Application Server > http://www.aidaweb.si >

March 28, 2013

Redrawing browser with new font settings

by Norbert Hartl

If a font in pharo is changed most windows stay with the old settings and only new ones take the new settings. The Settings window adjusts immediately if all fonts are set to the default font. So, is there a way in a deliberate way to let a window redraw itself with adjusting to new font settings? Norbert

March 28, 2013

Re: [Pharo-users] in anybody out there? who uses 2.0?

by Nicolai Hess

2013/3/28 Yanni Chiu <yanni(a)rogers.com> > > Another thing I've noticed is occasional sluggishness in the UI. It's hard > to pinpoint, I often feel like my clicks are being lost. > > For me some clicks are counted double (or wrong). >From the welcome-workspace hightlight MetacelloConfigurationBrowser open. and use the Mouse and context-menu for "do it". It opens the configuration browser, but it reopens the menu as well. The same happens for other mouse interactions as well. Open a Browser. Click on the codepane, open context menu, use left-mouse button in another browser pane -> the context menu closes and reopens again at the new mouse position. Nicolai

March 28, 2013