TODO
- post as news entry pharo.org
- summary of Discord discussions
- maybe: nicer formatted email (html?)
Pharo News of the Week 45/2026
==============================
30 October - 6 November 2026
News
----
- A complete Smalltalk-80 virtual machine written in Smalltalk, based on
the 1983 Xerox PARC publication (3 Nov)
https://github.com/ljulliar/smalltalk-80-sources
- Video: Music and sound with Pharo (4 Nov), Domenico Cipriani's talk at
the UK Smalltalk User Group, 27 May 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgdwVsI28no
- Video: Behaviour-driven development with Hera (5 Nov), Koen De Hondt's
talk at the UK Smalltalk User Group, 24 June 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fChZGdJ03U0
Highlights
----------
- Pharo 15 moves to Unicode 18.0, with the Unicode tables now stored as
bytes (#20168).
- The Commander 2 migration takes another step in Calypso (#20145,
#20165, #20166).
- Pharo Launcher now lists the Compiler Course image and Moose Suite 13
for Pharo 14.
- Merged PRs: pharo 29 (28 on Pharo15, 1 on Pharo14), NewTools 5, Spec
1, pharo-launcher 2; pharo-vm and iceberg 0.
Pharo 15
--------
28 PRs merged into the Pharo15 branch.
Commander 2 and Calypso
- #20145 New step on commander 2 migration
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20145
- #20165 Use CmCommandAborted instead of CmdCommandAborted
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20165
- #20166 Align API of SystemCommand to Commander2 API
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20166
- #20144 Some fixes in Calypso
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20144
- #20148 ClyShowPoolUsersCommand should be available only on class pools
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20148
Formatter, refactorings and rules
- #20180 Keep a binary receiver of a binary message free of parentheses
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20180
- #20179 Reformat with the package's formatter, from EnlumineurFormatter
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20179
- #20167 Fix: raise a refactoring error for invalid intervals in extract
method
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20167
- #20157 Make RBRemoveTemporaryVariableTransformation handles nested
(shadowed variables) - now UnusedTemp has auto fix
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20157
- #20160 Improving the replaceMethod source code before turning it into
a visitor
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20160
Reflectivity
- #20118 Fix method sender reification after selector node migration
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20118
- #20171 Make reflectivity more robust
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20171
System, libraries and UI
- #20168 Update the Unicode data to 18.0 and store its tables as bytes
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20168
- #20136 Create FFI callbacks through their library
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20136
- #20138 Fix/png reader
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20138
- #20174 Fix store settings of groups
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20174
- #20142 Update the Shout style on theme change when no style was chosen
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20142
- #20135 Pharo UI Improvements
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20135
- #20177 Revert "Pharo UI Improvements"
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20177
- #20143 Revert "Sync Zinc with svenvc/zinc"
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20143
Class comments
- #20151 fix/zipped comment fix #20147
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20151
- #20155 fixing the bytearray>>zipped executable comment for real this
time.
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20155
- #20154 Integrating the CRC template into the comment builder.
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20154
Tests and cleanups
- #20146 Fix multiple tests
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20146
- #20162 Fix last failing test
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20162
- #20176 Fix testLocalMethodsOfTheClassShouldNotBeRepeatedInItsTraits
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20176
- #20096 Work on methods with equivalent in superclass
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20096
- #20164 Last P14 to P15 sync
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20164
Pharo 14 (1 PR)
- #20117 Fix ReImplementedNotSentRule reporting methods that send their
own selector
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/20117
VM and other repositories
-------------------------
NewTools (pharo-spec/NewTools)
- #1557 Use the receiver inherited from the parent group in settings
items
https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/1557
- #1558 Do not write settings when showing their values
https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/1558
- #1561 fix: fix namespace test setup and expected changes size
https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/1561
- #1559 Restore zip compressed items inspection tab from Pharo 12 (fixes
pharo#20092)
https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/1559
- #1545 Transcript: Introduce API agnostic to internal line return
https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/1545
Spec (pharo-spec/Spec)
- #1962 Improve assertions failures descriptions for some tests
https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1962
Pharo Launcher (pharo-project/pharo-launcher)
- #781 Update sources.list with Moose Suite 13 for Pharo 14
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-launcher/pull/781
- #783 Add compiler course image to the launcher list next to the mooc
(the "Pharo Mooc" entry becomes "Pharo Courses")
https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-launcher/pull/783
pharo-vm, iceberg, pharo-website, pharo-zeroconf: no commits this week.
Mailing lists
-------------
pharo-users
- Pharo by Example (1 Nov): a 2025 thread revived to ask whether the
book, which still targets Pharo 9, will now be updated after the Pharo
14 release; no reply yet.
https://lists.pharo.org/hyperkitty/list/pharo-users@lists.pharo.org/thread/B5P7X5E333VUL6XFMMAAU2BVIANBTWUZ/
- Call for presenters - UKSTUG 2027 meetings (3 Nov): the UK Smalltalk
User Group is looking for speakers for its monthly online meetings;
open dates from 27 January to 24 November 2027.
https://lists.pharo.org/hyperkitty/list/pharo-users@lists.pharo.org/thread/SQZJ7WMM7IYRJYOD6HBTKMJUMMDWLE6G/
pharo-dev
- No new threads apart from last week's News of the Week.