On 20 January 2011 17:57, Andrew Black <t-ablack@microsoft.com> wrote:

I just started using Pharo on windows for the first time.

First, I should say that I’m really impressed.  Pharo seems much more solid than when I last tried it.  I programmed all day without getting a walkback!  All of the tools “just worked”.  Well done!   It’s a lot of work creating a solid user experience, but you have done it.

Now I have some Windows-specific questions.  I’m a real windows newbi, so please be patient.

After I downloaded Pharo.app, I dragged the whole directory to a convenient place, and tried to launch the Pharo.lnk file, just like the readme file says.  But there is no such file visible in windows explorer (even though I have “don’t show extensions for known file types” box unchecked.   The file shows up as Pharo.   Anyway, I figured that it was really Pharo.lnk  (Cygwin tells the truth) and double-clicked on it.

This brings up an alert that says C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\OneClick.app\Contents\Windows\Squeak.exe the specified path does not exist.

Is this because I moved the downloaded package?  Shouldn’t the symlink be relative?

Anyway, I looked in …\ Contents\Windows\, double-clicked on Squeak.exe, and everything started up just fine.

I worked all day, and saved my image a few times using the Save menu on the desktop.  Each time,  I get the usual confirmatory dialog in the Transcript.

Overnight, my machine shut down.

Today, I relaunch Squeak.exe, and of course I get the virgin image!  Where is the image that I’ve been using?  The Windows “search this computer” tool can’t find it!  What about my package cache?

Eventually I find everything in Pharo.app\Contents\Resources, but not until I’ve had a few moments of panic!

Questions: Is this the appropriate behaviour on Windows, or was there a user error on my part?  Is it OK to move my image somewhere else?   How can I change the current directory for Pharo on Windows?

OK, so now that I’ve found my image file, how to I re-launch it?  I double-clicked on the .image file, and I got a dialog saying that Windows didn’t know what program to use to open it.  Fair enough.  So I told it to use Squeak.exe.  Pharo launches, and I get: “Error: invalid utf8 input detected”.  It’s treating the image as if it were a source file: it has opened a MultiByteFileSTream on it.  That’s not right.

How do I re-launch my Pharo image?

squeak.exe C:/pathToMyImage/myImage.image or just copy your image to whereever you see fit and then run squeak.exe and when it asks which image to open, choose the one you prefer.

    Andrew

-- Best regards, Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

Just to add to what Andrew experienced: I am a relatively experienced Pharo user on Linux and OSX -- or at least I know about the VM and image and change files. I recently decided to test the TFLogin package on Windows so I installed Pharo on Windows using the One-Click image. I had an experience similar to Andrew's. It may have been easier for me to diagnose and fix the problems as I am more experienced with Pharo and have programmed on Windows for years, but... I think Pharo should install and run without problems the way any quality Windows does. I did nothing during the installation that I was not prompted to do (such as deciding where to place the zip file and where to unpack it) and yet Pharo would not start the first time I clicked on the shortcut. Pharo is great, but it should install and run without problems for newcomers on the most popular OS platform out there. Granted, programmers are more likely to be able to resolve the problems, but it doesn't inspire confidence when a product doesn't work immediately after installation. If I were at all uncertain about whether I wanted to try Pharo, failure on first startup might be enough to cause me to uninstall it without further investigation. I know resources are tight, but perhaps a little more attention should be given to the new user's first-time experience on Windows. Regards, TF On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 8:57 AM, Andrew Black <t-ablack@microsoft.com>wrote:

I just started using Pharo on windows for the first time.

First, I should say that I’m really impressed. Pharo seems much more solid than when I last tried it. I programmed all day without getting a walkback! All of the tools “just worked”. Well done! It’s a lot of work creating a solid user experience, but you have done it.

Now I have some Windows-specific questions. I’m a real windows newbi, so please be patient.

After I downloaded Pharo.app, I dragged the whole directory to a convenient place, and tried to launch the Pharo.lnk file, just like the readme file says. But there is no such file visible in windows explorer (even though I have “don’t show extensions for known file types” box unchecked. The file shows up as Pharo. Anyway, I figured that it was really Pharo.lnk (Cygwin tells the truth) and double-clicked on it.

This brings up an alert that says C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\OneClick.app\Contents\Windows\Squeak.exe the specified path does not exist.

Is this because I moved the downloaded package? Shouldn’t the symlink be relative?

Anyway, I looked in …\ Contents\Windows\, double-clicked on Squeak.exe, and everything started up just fine.

I worked all day, and saved my image a few times using the Save menu on the desktop. Each time, I get the usual confirmatory dialog in the Transcript.

Overnight, my machine shut down.

Today, I relaunch Squeak.exe, and of course I get the virgin image! Where is the image that I’ve been using? The Windows “search this computer” tool can’t find it! What about my package cache?

Eventually I find everything in Pharo.app\Contents\Resources, but not until I’ve had a few moments of panic!

Questions: Is this the appropriate behaviour on Windows, or was there a user error on my part? Is it OK to move my image somewhere else? How can I change the current directory for Pharo on Windows?

OK, so now that I’ve found my image file, how to I re-launch it? I double-clicked on the .image file, and I got a dialog saying that Windows didn’t know what program to use to open it. Fair enough. So I told it to use Squeak.exe. Pharo launches, and I get: “Error: invalid utf8 input detected”. It’s treating the image as if it were a source file: it has opened a MultiByteFileSTream on it. That’s not right.

How do I re-launch my Pharo image?

Andrew

Hi Andrew, just a quick shoot. Maybe your are having this problem? http://code.google.com/p/pharo/issues/detail?id=2374 cheers mariano On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Andrew Black <t-ablack@microsoft.com>wrote:

I just started using Pharo on windows for the first time.

First, I should say that I’m really impressed. Pharo seems much more solid than when I last tried it. I programmed all day without getting a walkback! All of the tools “just worked”. Well done! It’s a lot of work creating a solid user experience, but you have done it.

Now I have some Windows-specific questions. I’m a real windows newbi, so please be patient.

After I downloaded Pharo.app, I dragged the whole directory to a convenient place, and tried to launch the Pharo.lnk file, just like the readme file says. But there is no such file visible in windows explorer (even though I have “don’t show extensions for known file types” box unchecked. The file shows up as Pharo. Anyway, I figured that it was really Pharo.lnk (Cygwin tells the truth) and double-clicked on it.

This brings up an alert that says C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\OneClick.app\Contents\Windows\Squeak.exe the specified path does not exist.

Is this because I moved the downloaded package? Shouldn’t the symlink be relative?

Anyway, I looked in …\ Contents\Windows\, double-clicked on Squeak.exe, and everything started up just fine.

I worked all day, and saved my image a few times using the Save menu on the desktop. Each time, I get the usual confirmatory dialog in the Transcript.

Overnight, my machine shut down.

Today, I relaunch Squeak.exe, and of course I get the virgin image! Where is the image that I’ve been using? The Windows “search this computer” tool can’t find it! What about my package cache?

Eventually I find everything in Pharo.app\Contents\Resources, but not until I’ve had a few moments of panic!

Questions: Is this the appropriate behaviour on Windows, or was there a user error on my part? Is it OK to move my image somewhere else? How can I change the current directory for Pharo on Windows?

OK, so now that I’ve found my image file, how to I re-launch it? I double-clicked on the .image file, and I got a dialog saying that Windows didn’t know what program to use to open it. Fair enough. So I told it to use Squeak.exe. Pharo launches, and I get: “Error: invalid utf8 input detected”. It’s treating the image as if it were a source file: it has opened a MultiByteFileSTream on it. That’s not right.

How do I re-launch my Pharo image?

Andrew