You're welcomed. The English Grafoscopio page is here (with updated installation instructions):
http://mutabit.com/
grafoscopio/index.en.html Tutorial is mainly in Spanish, but the code is pretty readable :-).
Cheers,
Offray
On 26/10/16 14:36, phil@highoctane.be wrote:
Interesting.
I really need to get into that grafoscopio...
Phil
On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 9:13 PM, Offray Vladimir Luna C��rdenas <offray.luna@mutabit.com> wrote:
Hi,On the issue of contributing to Free, Libre, Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects, I have been reading recently Nadia Eghbal and her analysis that confirm that most FLOSS projects are done by individuals and small teams, which is contrary to the bazaar narrative. This comic shows the point:
and you can find more details here: https://medium.com/@nayafia/wh
at-success-really-looks-like- in-open-source-2dd1facaf91c#. e360z53sf In that sense Pharo and what we're doing here on small communities, teams and individuals, is not the exception, is the rule. We're fortunate that we have a friendly and dynamic community around a powerful environment, so even being part of the rule, we can be very creative and productive.
On the issue of step 0, learning materials and approaches, and Pharo for beginners, my findings are that Pharo is pretty well suited for non-programmers (journalist, scientist, teachers, philosophers) compared to IPython for example. I have tried both, IPython notebooks and Pharo/Grafoscopio, and the uniformity and self containment of the environment is very empowering, without too much overhead and extra complications. So I think that we also need to look towards the non-usual programmer and computer scientist profiles for the "newbies" and interested in belonging to the community.
Our approach in our Data Week workshop is different:
- We start with some panoramic view of computing comparing Unix fathers versus dynabook children. This gives a point to see the technology and the differences and why Pharo is more like OS + IDE + Apps in a minimalist fashion, instead of the Unix legacy approach to the same problem.
- We go to the professor Stef tutorial, which is the first part of a Grafoscopio notebook. Then we use some one liners taking from Sven's Elegant Pharo code, then we use Hern��n's Internet Movie Data Base example to introduce JSON, queries and REST API, then we use blocks to abstract the example (see below) and create our first "Cinemania" package.
- Then we learn how to extend the Dataviz package (made in Roassal), with our Twitter exported data and we deal with an open problem: Twitter Data Selfies.
So, there are several routes to learning for different populations and contexts. Putting the new contextualized stuff we're doing in dialogue with the material the community is creating (MOOC, UPBE, Deep Into Pharo) and other communities like Open Knowledge (see our recent for the upcomming Data Week 7 at [a]) is the key to let learners traverse different paths according to their needs and interests.
Cheers,
Offray
On 25/10/16 22:19, Dimitris Chloupis wrote:
Ruby On Rails was started by one developer , so no it's not users that bring contributors it's contributors that bring users. Smalltalk started by a small team. Almost all programming languages started with no users and mostly a sole developer. This is because a user will not use software that is not even alpha, on the other hand a contributor will be a user and a contributor regardless of the state of software provided he has the desire to do so.
Spreading the word and helping people understand Pharo no longer makes you a user, it promotes you to contributor
Same applies to Richard
;)
On Wed, 26 Oct 2016 at 03:19, Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes it is an amazing thing what you all do, I admire that. But isn't contributors previous users?
What I like about the Richard intent, from what I understand, is to make Smalltalk, and Pharo, more visible, more used, and that is the only way I know to bring more contributors. From what I know, Ruby got a lot of more contributors after Rails, which brought a lot of users to the platform.��
I really would like to contribute some day, in the mean time I will try to support initiatives like the one proposed by Richard, and spread the word as much as I can.
On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Dimitris Chloupis <kilon.alios@gmail.com> wrote:
Do you know how many unique views had PBE last 5 months ? 1000
Do you know how many contributions PBE had last 5 months ? Zero. Not 100 . Not even 10. Not even 1... zero
PBE would be still in Pharo version 1.4 if it was not for me , Stef and Damien.
This is not a Pharo problem, all open source software has the same issue.
We need more people helping, I ported the first 1/3rd of the book from 1.4 to Pharo 4 just by myself and the other two joined after I was burned out from the pain. I was disgusted working on PBE . I literally hated Pharo. Fortunately nothing that a bit of a small break could not fix.
I was and still I am the most loud critic about the state of documentation. In the end however what makes open source projects exist is not users. Users are insignificant. Sorry to say that but is true. It's contributors that are the life of the project.
People like Stef made Pharo and even Squeak possible. People like Stef keep Smalltalk alive. Personally I don't give a damn what users want , I rather attract only contributors and zero just users. That's enough to keep Pharo evolving for centuries.
Stef says that "Pharo is yours" , apparently this easier said than done. I respect your opinion, I agree with your opinion because I said what you say years ago. In the end however if you and other users are not willing to help we will remain at zero commits at least as far as PBE is concerned .
It's pretty much the same for the other areas of Pharo.
On Wed, 26 Oct 2016 at 01:26, Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz@gmail.com> wrote:
Dimitris:
I agree with much of what you said, but I think it is still possible to make step 0 and follow the Pharo path with more easy. :)��
Also,��https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/job/UpdatedPhar is nice too, I didn't know of it. It is the new version of PBE ongoing? I am going to take a look at it.oByExample/lastSuccessfulBuild /artifact/book-result/ PharoTour/PharoTour.html
Ben:
Thanks for the links, two of them I didn't know of. I hadn't time to read them yet, but I think what I am looking for is something like��https://medium.com/concerning-pharo/reddit-st-in-10- cool-pharo-classes-1b5327ca074 0
"The things we see as important��might be a paradigm step too far for newcomers."
I think the problem for Step 0 it is exactly that. I myself have already tried to show the paradigm shift along with all that must be learn to use Pharo, and it didn't went well. It is too much to tackle at once. There is the language, the environment, the IDE, the paradigm shift, too much...
Nicolai:
The first example from the book provides the first experience you have on Pharo, and it uses stuff that is not on the default image (it happened to me a long time ago and with a friend more recently). It is frustrating and leave the person trying to learn suspicious.��I see that the current site for the book has a link to the image that should be used while reading the book, but it is not very visible and I think the book don't mention it.��From the Getting Started chapter I count five pages until some code is executed (Time now). The problem here is that people usually don't understand, yet, the power of the environment, and are eager to see code and execute it, and they often get confused with so many different things to learn even before the first "Hello World". I can say the first time I got PBE I gave up because of this, and I only come back later because I persist to learn Smalltalk, and I know some other people who tried to read it too and give up for exactly the same reason.
I found the book an excellent reference and source to solidify��the understanding of Pharo, but I don't like it as a tutorial.��
-------
Look at the Go language site:��https://golang.org/, the first thing it puts in your face is a way to execute code and a link to a Tour. I don't even have to think much before I have executed the Hello World, my hand just moved the mouse to the Run button, and even before I noticed I was doing the tour.
In my opinion, a good Step 0 would be something like Profstef (http://amber-lang.net/learn.html ) as a Tour, going slowly through the language aspects, messages types, comparing to other OO languages, showing that operator are just messages, then that control flow statements are also just messages, creating classes etc, always letting the user execute code as she goes on.��
After that, the Tour could tell its user to continue it using the image and showing the download link. When the user execute Pharo.exe and loads the default image the first thing that appears is the Profstef asking if it is the first time he is there and if he is continuing the tour from the web (if it is someone used to Pharo, he just closes the windows and starts to use his new fresh image). It could explains steadily the workspace, the transcript, the nautilus and how to make a very simple web application with tests. After that it could explain the image, that objects are stored (serialized) into it and the image itself consists of the running program while the Pharo.exe is the VM. In the end It could point to a tutorial like��https://medium.com/concerning-pharo/reddit-st-in-10- , the PBE and to the many others resources available.cool-pharo-classes-1b5327ca074 0
The order of things could change and maybe I had missed something, but that is what I can think now. Perhaps this approach is too slow, I don't know, but the fast one isn't working for me :( It don't need to be a tour also, but something in these lines, like the medium post above but with more parts, each describing a little more of Pharo. The idea, in general, is to easy the entrance barriers��that Pharo has by it's quite different, yet powerful, programming model and environment. When I talk to people I know that have tried Pharo, that is the biggest problem.
That is just my two cents. :)
And thanks for all the new links :)
Regards,Vitor