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[Ann] BPatterns: The rewrite engine at your fingertips
by Denis Kudriashov Feb. 3, 2026

Feb. 3, 2026

Hi all. This is the release of *BPatterns* project, one of my old ideas on how to make the rewrite engine usable for scripting. As a quick reminder, here is an example of the classic rewrite-engine matching syntax: *``@receiver isNil ifTrue: ``@nilBlock* In practice, patterns like this usually live inside string literalsâhidden away in lint rules, deprecations, or refactorings. To use them for *manual* code search or rewriting, you typically need a dedicated tool. Now compare that with the same pattern expressed as a *BPattern*: *[ any isNil ifTrue: anyBlock ] bpattern* No special syntax. No magical tools. Just pure Smalltalk. You write a block. You send #bpattern. Youâre done. Every editor understands it. Every tool respects it. Want to see where this pattern appears? * [ any isNil ifTrue: anyBlock ] bpattern browseUsers* [image: Screenshot 2026-01-31 at 12.16.19.png] Want to rewrite all of them? *[[ any isNil ifTrue: anyBlock ] -> [ any ifNil: anyBlock ]] brewrite preview* [image: Screenshot 2026-01-31 at 12.17.57.png] Because *BPatterns are real Smalltalk code*, all development tools work out of the box: syntax highlighting, completion, navigation, refactorings. This is the rewrite engine treated as a *first-class citizen*. Not strings. Not tooling sidecars. Not just for advanced users. *A rewrite engine you can actually use.* * A rewrite engine at your fingertips.* More details are in the blog post: - https://dionisiydk.blogspot.com/2026/02/bpatterns-rewrite-engine-with-small… And follow the project on GitHub: - https://github.com/dionisiydk/BPatterns -

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[Ann] New deprecations API
by Denis Kudriashov Feb. 3, 2026

Feb. 3, 2026

Following the release of *BPatterns <https://github.com/dionisiydk/BPatterns>*, I am happy to share another idea that naturally grows out of it: *simplifying deprecations in Pharo*. Todayâs deprecations are powerful but verboseâstring-based rewrite rules, duplicated selectors, and boilerplate that most of us copy from examples. With BPatterns, all of this can be eliminated: Object>>confirm: queryString ^ self *deprecatedBy: * [ ConfirmationRequest signal: queryString ] Deprecation is now expressed in the same language as the code itself, not in a separate, string-based mini-language. There is no need to think about transformation rulesâthey are part of the system and enabled by default. Zero boilerplate. No duplicated code For more details and comparison with current API see the blog post: - https://dionisiydk.blogspot.com/2026/02/deprecations-as-they-should-be.html

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"Spec Window Management in Hera" â New blog post on all: objects all: theTime
by Koen De Hondt Jan. 30, 2026

Jan. 30, 2026

Dear Pharo users and developers, I started a series of posts about describing Spec application behaviour with Hera. The first post explains how Hera manages open Spec windows and describes the Gherkin steps involved with windows. https://all-objects-all-the-time.st/#/blog/posts/19 As always, all feedback is welcome. Happy reading! Ciao, Koen

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How to improve sharpiness of fonts
by stephane ducasse Jan. 28, 2026

Jan. 28, 2026

Hi guys Happy new year! I would like to share with you a need. I have different screens of different DPI and my view is not getting better. Now on retina the fonts are either too small (zoom 100) or too large (150) so I end up having blurry fonts. I would like to know if the situation could be improved with font that have a larger spectrum of sizes. May be using the fonts of the OS could help too. Any idea and help is welcome. S

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UKSTUG Meeting: Kasper Ãsterbye - AI Inside Pharo - 28 January 2026
by UK Smalltalk Jan. 15, 2026

Jan. 15, 2026

This talk explores what it means to work with AI from inside a live Pharo system rather than treating AI as an external chatbot. I will demonstrate experiments where AI models are invoked directly from the Playground, including a concrete implementation of conversation history (AIAHistory) and experiments across multiple models and providers. Rather than focusing on code generation, the emphasis is on workflows: how different conversation structures affect results, how styles and constraints can be imposed on generated comments, and how AI systems can be inspected for systematic errors and limitations. Examples include documentation support, UML generation (via PlantUML), and experiments in automated paper review. The talk is experimental in nature and rooted in Smalltalkâs strengths: reflection, live objects, and tools that are part of the system rather than bolted on. The goal is not to present a finished framework, but to share concrete insights, failures, and possibilities for AI as a native Pharo tool. Kasper Ãsterbye ( https://github.com/kasperosterbye ) is a retired computer science researcher with a long background in programming languages and live systems, including decades of work with Smalltalk and Pharo. He now explores how AI models can be integrated as native tools inside a running Pharo system, focusing on conversation structure, systematic failures, and tool design rather than automation alone. This will be an online meeting. If you'd like to join us, please sign up in advance on the meeting's Meetup page ( https://www.meetup.com/ukstug/events/311265921/ ) to receive the meeting details.

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Master Internship sponsorship
by Noury Bouraqadi Jan. 15, 2026

Jan. 15, 2026

Hi, My lab has funding for several Master's degree internship positions. These are likely to be the first step to PhD positions. - Topics are related to Software Engineering with applications to Robotics, IoT, Digital Twins, and AI - Duration: 5 months - Funding: about 630 euros / month - Location: Douai, Lille area (30km), France Application: send me a CV with a short email introducing yourself and your background. Best, Noury Bouraqadi IMT Nord Europe France

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"Hera 1.1 â A Shipload of New Functionality" â New blog post on all: objects all: theTime
by Koen De Hondt Dec. 31, 2025

Dec. 31, 2025

Dear Pharo users and developers, I presented Hera, a BDD tool for Pharo, at ESUGâ25. That was version 1.0. I am happy to announce that version 1.1 is available. You can read about all new and improved functionality on https://all-objects-all-the-time.st/#/blog/posts/18. As always, all feedback is welcome. Happy reading! Ciao, Koen

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Looking for Metacello beta testers
by stephane ducasse Dec. 29, 2025

Dec. 29, 2025

Hello Under the radar, we are actively continiously cleaning Pharo deep core so that we can work on new features. For metacello, in Pharo 13 we introduced a strict mode (so that we can detect hidden dependencies), and other loading features to support module experimentations. It will make Pharo code more robust in the long term. Since a couple of months we are actively simplifying/cleaning Metacello (as the version available in Pharo) because we want to introduce new features such as the possibility to force the reload of baselines and others. Now the unit test coverage of metacello is quite low and we do not use/know all the features that are available and that you may rely on. So we would love to have beta testers that can just try to load their code in Pharo 14 alpha and report potential bugs or features drop we would have introduced. So do not hesitate and this is a nice way to help pharo S.

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EXIF / JPEG metadata
by Alistair Grant Nov. 30, 2025

Nov. 30, 2025

Hi Everyone, As far as I can tell, JPEGReadWriter in Pharo 7 doesn't read (or write) the image metadata, e.g. title, keywords, exposure time, etc. Is anyone aware of a package that does? Thanks! Alistair

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Fw: Pharo CIG Crash Issue
by MORGAN LEE GUAN HAN Nov. 29, 2025

Nov. 29, 2025

Forwarding the original email. ________________________________ From: MORGAN LEE GUAN HAN <1211107272(a)student.mmu.edu.my> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2025 12:08 AM To: Aik-Siong Koh <askoh(a)askoh.com> Subject: Pharo CIG Crash Issue Dear Pharo Team, I am currently attempting to replicate what Esteban Lorenzano did for this Youtube Video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fpvZJaFx4> (Esteban Lorenzano - Pharo-CIG: C++ Interface Generator - 23 April 2025), which is to generate C Bindings for Pharo uFFI to call, in Windows 11. Unfortunately, I am unable to replicate the results of the video. The results of my attempts leads to Pharo's Virtual Machine crashing and exiting abruptly to the launcher. I am unable to find any logs for this, and would appreciate your support for this matter. OS: Windows 11 Clang: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/releases/tag/llvmorg-18.1.8 (LLVM-18.1.8-win64.exe) Pharo Template: Pharo 14.0 - 64bit (development version, latest) Pharo CIG Github: https://github.com/pharo-cig/pharo-cig Raylib: https://github.com/raysan5/raylib Steps to Reproduce Step 1: Create Image [cid:1a4a23bb-52e6-47a5-b0a7-b251d6ddc8ea] Step 2: Installing Pharo CIG Open Playground wtih 'Ctrl + O + P' (or 'Cmd + O + P'). Copy and paste the Installation Code from the Pharo CIG Github<https://github.com/pharo-cig/pharo-cig>. Click the "Do it All" green triangle button on the top left of the Playground Window. [cid:2a667f99-b808-4950-a40a-798054e502e4] Step 3: Installing Clang Download and run the Pre-built binaries from this Github page<https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/releases/tag/llvmorg-18.1.8> according to your platform. The folder named LLVM should be in your "C:\Program Files" directory after installation for Windows 11. Other installation methods may be used according to your preference. Step 4: Installing raylib Download or clone the raylib Github repository<https://github.com/raysan5/raylib>. Extract the folder ('raylib-master') if you are downloading the repository. Place the folder in a directory of your preference. E.g "C:\Users\morgan\raylib-master" Step 5: Setting Pharo CIG Requirements CIG needs to be able to find the clang library. If it cannot find it automatically, set the location in LibClang>>unix64LibraryName, e.g. - Pharo CIG Github<https://github.com/pharo-cig/pharo-cig> Open System Browser with 'Ctrl + O + B' (or 'Cmd + O + B'). Create a "win32LibraryName" method in the LibClang class under the CIG-LibClang package to set your "libclang.dll" location. This method is missing from the default installation. Paste in this code (There may be whitespace character issues): win32LibraryName ^ FFIWindowsLibraryFinder new userPaths: #('C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin'); findAnyLibrary: #('libclang.dll') [cid:3241b208-b515-4b7b-98fc-45312ec65c82] Save and create the method with 'Ctrl + S' (or 'Cmd + S'). [cid:7d0e72f0-4086-411a-8e27-c2b11c4df817] Step 6: The Example Recipe from Github Open Playground wtih 'Ctrl + O + P' (or 'Cmd + O + P'). Copy and paste the example recipe from Github <https://github.com/pharo-cig/pharo-cig?tab=readme-ov-file> into the Playground. Configure the example recipe from Github<https://github.com/pharo-cig/pharo-cig?tab=readme-ov-file>. Change "import:" and "cIncludedPath:" directories according to your file structure. E.g '/home/esteban/dev/vm/raylib/src/raylib.h' â 'C:\Users\morgan\raylib-master\src\raylib.h' Click the "Do it All" green triangle button on the top left of the Playground Window. This should cause the Virtual Machine to abruptly exit or crash. Code Snippet (There may be whitespace character issues): (lib := CigCLibraryGenerator new) "Prefix to be added to the generated classes (structures, enums, etc.)" prefix: 'Ray'; "name of the generated package (by default, is the same as the libraryName, capitalized)" packageName: 'Raylib'; "Library name. If not unixLibraryName, macLibraryName and winLibraryName are specified, it will be taken as base name for the existing libraries (e.g. in this case raylib.so, raylib.dylib and raylib.dll)" libraryName: 'raylib'; "headers to import (there can be as many of them as is needed)." import: 'C:\Users\morgan\raylib-master\src\raylib.h'; import: 'C:\Users\morgan\raylib-master\src\rcamera.h'; "include path (-I of c compiler), to allow libclang to find other included headers." cIncludePath: 'C:\Users\morgan\raylib-master\src'; "Since this is a graphical library, instruct the library to run in mainthread (otherwise, default is 'same thread' which is the same thread the pharo is running)" useMainThread. "generate the library" lib generate. [cid:55b4605c-3b19-45f0-8ed8-ef9093b6fa89] End of email.

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