August 2012 - Esug-list - lists.esug.org

GSoC - Package management with Fuel
by Martin Dias Aug. 24, 2012

Aug. 24, 2012

Hi This week has ended Google Summer of Code program 2012. I have to thank Marcus and Carlos Ferro, my mentors, as well as Mariano, Guille Polito, Camillo Bruni, and others, who collaborated in different ways during these three months. Also thank, of course, to Carla and Janko... and Google ;) The main purpose of this mail is to summarize the work done for my project, named "Package management with Fuel" [1][2]. Tools for managing code in Pharo export classes, traits, and methods as series of source definitions, which then import by evaluating them with the compiler. This is basically how FileOut/FileIn or Monticello works. This is slow on large pieces of code, so if you want to install a big package, you need a lot of time compiling it. Why should you compile it again, given that it was all compiled when you exported the package? The bytecodes will be the same again, you know... If you just could load the Classes and Compiled Methods instead of compiling it all again, you can save time. With this goal in mind, I started working in FuelPackageLoader[4] (now Tanker[3]), a prototype we wrote last year, which already exports and imports packages without using any compiler. But it has two important issues: it wasn't capable of export source code, and it wasn't able to tolerate class-shape changes in hierarchies (ie, a change on inst vars in a external superclass). So, we decided to start from scratch with a new prototype, code name Carbono. The idea was to reify how FileOut and FileIn are done, but storing binary information so that compilation can be avoided. In a nutshell, Carbono stores a package into two files: - A sources file, imitating the traditional FileOut chunk format. - A binary file, where uses Fuel[5] to serialize a series of code definitions. Each of them knows the position in the sources file where its source code counterpart is. For example, a class definition knows the position of its comment (in the case it exists), and a method definition knows the position of its source code. A basic example, to export a couple of classes: TAExport new binariesOn: aBinaryStream sourcesOn: aTextStream; behaviors: {ClassA. ClassB}; methods: {}; initializeClasses: true; run. which then you can import with: TAImport new binariesFrom: aBinaryStream sourcesFrom: aTextStream; run. Anyway, you can also choose to: - export only binaries or only sources - import only binaries (source code can be decompiled) - import only sources (via #fileIn) Mariano Martinez Peck worked a lot on it, fixing bugs, and especially optimizing it A LOT, so I hope you will enjoy his demonstration this Monday on ESUG Innovation Awards. Seems that he could export Seaside, Pier and Magritte, and import them in another image, with source code, and just in a few seconds ;) Also, some ultra confidential WikiLeaks revealed that he could export almost all Pharo packages, and import them in a kernel image, all with source codes but without using the compiler :) Note1: Tolerating class-shape changes in hierarchies is not yet done, but it should in some days. So far, the only strategy when a change is detected will be to recompile methods, but it may be more sophisticated in a not-so-far future. Note2: Although finally it was not strictly necessary, Guillermo Polito and me wrote tests for a new ClassBuilder. It is part of Slot, a kind of reification of objects layout made by Toon Verwaest and Camillo Bruni. It is too long to explain it here, but the thing is that was not an easy job, and we hope it will be integrated in Pharo. This is a work in progress, but you can install and try it on latest Pharo 2.0, evaluating: Gofer it squeaksource3: 'PharoTaskForces'; package: 'Slot'; package: 'SlotTests'; load. (Smalltalk at: #SlotVirus) perform: #spread. Gofer it squeaksource3: 'PharoTaskForces'; package: 'SlotsClassBuilderIntegration'; load. Gofer new smalltalkhubUser: 'marianopeck' project: 'Tanker'; package: 'ConfigurationOfTanker'; load. (Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfTanker) loadBleedingEdge. Gofer new squeaksource: 'FuelExperiments'; package: 'Carbono'; package: 'CarbonoTests'; load. Cheers, Martín [1]: http://gsoc2012.esug.org/projects/fuel-packages [2]: https://google-melange.appspot.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2012/tin… [3]: http://marianopeck.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/tanker-transporting-packages-wi… [4]: http://marianopeck.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/importing-and-exporting-package… [5]: http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel

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PhD topics with RMOD
by Stéphane Ducasse Aug. 24, 2012

Aug. 24, 2012

Hi guys we have a position for a PhD. If you are interested we can talk at ESUG 2012 or by Skype. Stef Context: Dynamically-typed languages cannot take advantage of static type information. In this context we would like to study the benefit of the introduction of static types *annotations* on library design and general robustness. The benefits can be at the level of the robustness (bug identification), but also tools (IDE) and support for assembly generation/c in case of JIT. The PhD grant is financed in the context of the Safe Python project therefore the Ph.D. will have to work in contact do we with the project partners and help in the context of some deliverables. The following tasks have to be done: - RPython is not formally defined. One of the first task will be to define the formal semantic of RPython. One approach is to write a RPython interpreter based on an operational semantics and to compare the output with the RPython interpreter. We will certainly use PLT redex which is a domain-specific language to specify and debug operational semantics. - We may use the abstract syntax tree of PyLint and use the Frama-C infrastructure. We will also consider to build a Python parser based on petitParser. - Define of some default metrics may also be necessary for the SafePython project. Their definition should be trivial on ASTs. - Analysis of the benefits of static typing for RPython. One idea is to study the existing python libraries and analyze the "distance" to the RPython subset. - Exploring type checking in presence of inconsistent type annotations. - Since we are developing Pharo and that static type annotation are important to support C or assembly generation, we would like to apply the same technique to Pharo: - define a syntax to support type annotation (reuse the one developed by Pleaid team member) - perform some analysis of existing library. References [1] D. Ancona, M. Ancona, A Cuni, and N. Matsakis. RPython: a Step Towards Reconciling Dynamically and Statically Typed OO Languages. In OOPSLA 2007 Proceedings and Companion, DLS'07: Proceedings of the 2007 Symposium on Dynamic Languages, pages 53-64. ACM, 2007. [2] A Visual Environment for Developing Context-Sensitive Term Rewriting Systems Jacob Matthews, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Matthias Felleisen [3] Felleisen,M.,Hieb,R.:The revised report on the syntactic theories of sequential control and state. (1992) 235–271 Skills and Profile You must hold a Master's in computer science, control engineering, mathematics, scientific computation or an equivalent diploma. Nationality is not taken into consideration. Knowledge in programming language design. Object-oriented programming with knowledge of Smalltalk and Python are a plus. About Lille and INRIA: Lille is located in the north of france at the border to Belgium one hour from Paris, 1h20 from London, 35 min from Brussels, by train. French food, combined with belgian beer. RMoD: http://rmod.lille.inria.fr INRIA Lille: http://www.inria.fr/lille/ INRIA in General: http://www.inria.fr Lille: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille http://wikitravel.org/en/Lille Benefits/Users/ducasse/Workspace/FirstCircle/Administration/Ad-INRIA/Projects/2012-SafePython/PhDtopics.txt Duration : 36 months – starting date of the contract : October 2012, 15th Salary: 1957,54 EUR the first two years and 2058,84 EUR the third year Monthly salary after taxes: around 1597,11 EUR the 1st two years and 1679,76 EUR the 3rd year (social security included). Possibility of French courses Help for housing Scientific Resident card and help for husband/wife visa Additional Information Application deadline: 15 September 2012 Contact for position: stephane.ducasse(a)inria.fr

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Pharo usage poll
by Esteban Lorenzano Aug. 22, 2012

Aug. 22, 2012

Hi, sorry for multiple posts I'm running a small survey about Pharo usage... it is just to collect some minor data, not big answers, just some :) If you don't use Pharo... please ignore it. If you already answered... ignore it as well. But if you use Pharo and still didn't answer, please go to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFZKeXU… and answer it... they are just 3 questions! Thanks, Esteban

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Re: [Esug-list] [vwnc] Language Translation Tools
by James Robertson Aug. 17, 2012

Aug. 17, 2012

A few years ago John McIntosh spoke about this very thing at the Smalltalk Solutions conference. What's banned is a fully open Smalltalk system (or one open enough, like Scratch, that users can download live code at runtime). An app built in Smalltalk isn't a problem, unless you leave it open to live updates. None of the commercial vendors have done any work to make it possible to use their systems on IOS (or Android, for that matter). There's been a lot of work in the open source Smalltalk world in those directions. On Aug 17, 2012, at 7:47 AM, stephane ducasse wrote: >> Hi everyone, >> >> do any frameworks or tools exist for VisualWorks that could help port an application (some 80+ classes only) to Objective-C++ and/or C++0x ? I'm not looking for a complete solution, just something that can save me creating hundreds of files and class skeletons by hand. >> >> Smalltalk is forbidden on iOS by Apple. Even if it would be allowed, I doubt I could get the VM compiled for that platform. Therefore I need a port. > > This is not true. Smalltalk is not forbidden. This is JIT and self modifying code. > > DrGeoII is going today to the AppStore. > >> I can imagine that associating every instance variable with a type (class) could already be sufficient to do the type inferencing for all methods. Although I have no detailed idea yet how to map both languages. It is certainly not worth the effort to brew my own solution anyway. So some already existing tool would be really nice. >> >> Any hint is appreciated. >> >> Andre >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> vwnc mailing list >> vwnc(a)cs.uiuc.edu >> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc > > > _______________________________________________ > vwnc mailing list > vwnc(a)cs.uiuc.edu > http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc James Robertson http://www.jarober.com jarober(a)gmail.com

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ESUG Exercise
by Philippe Marschall Aug. 15, 2012

Aug. 15, 2012

Hi Would you like to be awake and ready to focus on the outstanding talks ESUG has to offer? Would you like to burn off some calories form all the socializing of the previous evening? Then why not go for a run in the morning in the amazing scenery that Ghent has to offer? So if you're interested bring your running gear with you. Yes, this is a rehash of last years event which was actually quite successful. Cheers Philippe

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Innovation Technology awards submission
by Jorge Ressia Aug. 13, 2012

Aug. 13, 2012

Hi Jordi, I submitted a tool for the innovation awards through the registration application, however, I did not received any confirmation. Is that ok? The link submissions in http://esug.org/wiki/pier/Conferences/2012 points to a forbidden page which asks the user to authenticate. But this authentication has nothing to do with the registration page. I would suggest changing the link to point to the registration application. Cheers, Jorge

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4 days left!! - ESUG 2012 9th Innovation Technology Awards - Reminder
by jdelgado Aug. 11, 2012

Aug. 11, 2012

[Sorry if you receive this message more than once] ESUG 2012, 9th Innovation Technology Awards REMINDER: 4 days to deadline!! Have you written innovative Smalltalk? The developers of any Smalltalk-based software can enter by submitting a 3-5min video of their software. Entrants demo their systems in a session at the end of Monday August 27th 2012, after which the conference attendees vote. (A vote consists in providing a sorted list of 3 preferred pieces of software.) The top 3 teams with the most innovative software will receive, respectively, 500 Euros, 300 Euros and 200 Euros. The results are announced in the Awards ceremony that is held during the social event. Applicants should provide the following information on the conference registration server. Once you have registered your personal info, an 'Awards' menu allows submitting your software. You can provide this information when you first register, or login again later and update your details. The registration server will open soon. You can start preparing your software right now though. Info to provide: Name of the software Licence information (free, shareware, or commercial) Name of the Smalltalk dialect used Name, Affiliation and Country of developers Besides, it would be great if the submission could include: URL for a video (3-5 min) showing a screencast / demo of the software URL for downloading the software or at least a runnable demo Deadline: August 15 Any Smalltalker can apply (students, companies, ...). The presented piece of code/software should be written in Smalltalk or directly support Smalltalk (e.g. Smalltalk VM). All Smalltalk dialects are accepted. The applicant should be "strongly related" to the presented code, be it as an author, as owner of the copyright/copyleft, or as an official representative of the copyright/copyleft owner. Bests, Jordi -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/4-days-left-ESUG-2012-9th-Innovation-Technology-Award… Sent from the ESUG mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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CFP: Advances in Smalltalk based systems, from high level environment to hardware devices
by Loïc Lagadec Aug. 9, 2012

Aug. 9, 2012

SCP: Advances in Smalltalk based systems, from high level environment to hardware devices *Important Dates* Paper submission deadline: *Oct. 15th, 2012* Notification of acceptance: Jan. 15th, 2013 Final papers due: May 15th, 2013 Publication date for the SCP special issue: Oct., 2013 *Call for Papers* In connection with the IWST series of workshops, held annually in association with the ESUG conference, the *Science of Computer Programming *_(_SCP <http://www.journals.elsevier.com/science-of-computer-programming/>_)_will feature a special issue with papers that focus on software system development based on Smalltalk. For this special issue we invite submission of high quality papers, including extended and updated versions of papers published at IWST in 2012 or earlier, and also including other papers with relevant topics as described below. *Topics* Relevant topics include Smalltalk support for the entire life cycle of software systems, ranging from high-level active specifications ?to low-level hardware support. * Requirements, specification, design, coding, testing, maintenance, metrics and renovation of software;? * Validation, verification, debugging; * Design, implementation and evaluation of domain specific languages; * Programming environments, development tools, visualization and animation;? * Virtual machines; * Mobile devices; * Software aspects of hardware design. This special issue of SCP will explore topics in the Smalltalk design of tools and environments that promote good software engineering properties, e.g., with respect to analyzability, predictability, expressiveness, evolvability, and semantic interactions. The special issue aims to highlight some hard and deep issues and tradeoffs, and to try to characterize the conflicts and, to the extent possible, describe useful solutions. *Submission Guidelines* Submission of high quality papers to this special issue of SCP are hereby invited, including extended and updated versions of papers published at IWST in 2012 or earlier, and also including other papers with relevant topics as described above. Submission is by Elsevier Editorial System <http://ees.elsevier.com/scico/> no later than October 15th, 2012, midnight Samoa Apia time. Authors should select the *Smalltalk Based System *special issue. Notification of acceptance is sent out on January 15th, 2013. A final version of the paper is due on May 15th, 2013. The paper must be formatted according to the Elsevier style as specified on authorinstructions - N10BF0 <http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505623/authori…>with a maximum of 20 pages including references and appendices etc. The papers will be reviewed by the program committee. Submitted papers will be treated as confidential during the review process. Submitted papers must not be published or submitted for publication elsewhere, and in particular papers published at IWST workshops must be extended and/or updated compared to the workshop version of the paper. *Preliminary program Committee* */Loïc Lagadec/* *LabSticc, ENSTA-Bretagne, France//* */Alain Plantec, /* *LabSticc, University of Brest, France//* /Gabriela Arevalo/ Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina /Marcus Denker/ Rmod, INRIA Lille - Nord Europe, France /Luc Fabresse/ Ecole des Mines de Douai, France, /Tudor Girba/ CompuGroup Medical Schweiz, Switzerland /Andy Kellens/ Software Languages Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium /Mickaël Kerboeuf/ LabSticc, University of Brest, France /Jannik Laval/ LaBRI, University of Bordeaux, France /Yann Monclair/ JP Morgan, UK /Mariano Martinez Peck/ Ecole des Mines de Douai, France, /Lukas Renggli/ Google, Switzerland /Jorge Ressia/ Software Composition Group, University of Bern, Switzerland /Bastian Steinert/ HPI, Software Architecture Group, Germany /Hernan Wilkinson/ 10Pines, IT consultancy, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Smalltalks 2012 - 6th International Conference on Smalltalk Technologies - Call for papers
by Jorge Ressia Aug. 6, 2012

Aug. 6, 2012

[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this Call for Papers] CALL FOR PAPERS SMALLTALKS 2012 6th International Conference on Smalltalk Technologies http://www.fast.org.ar/smalltalks2012 Research Track: Call for Papers - http://scg.unibe.ch/wiki/events/smalltalks12 November 3th - 5th, 2012 Important dates: Submission (Hard Deadline): September 17th, 2012 (Argentinian time: UTC/GMT -3 hours). Notification of acceptance: October 8th, 2012. Camera Ready Submission: November 2nd, 2012. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conference Location: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (Argentina) The Smalltalks series of conferences (www.fast.org.ar) is a lively forum on Smalltalk-based software technologies that brings together more than 200 people from both academia and industry for a period of three days. Past editions of Smalltalks have included many high-quality presentations from industry and research. These contributions have shown interesting applications of Smalltalk, advances in the Smalltalk language, didactic uses of Smalltalk and so on. Similar to last year, Smalltalks 2012 will include a dedicated research track. We welcome submissions to this research track presenting original scientific contributions to, or using, Smalltalk in general. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to: - Aspects, Aspect Languages and Applications. - Ambient Intelligence, Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing and Embedded Systems. - Compilation Technology, Optimization, Virtual Machines. - Educational Material. - Language Engineering, Extensions. - Model Driven Engineering / Development. - Meta-Modeling, Reflection and Meta-programming. - Programming in the Large, Design, Architectures and Components. - Programming Environments, Browsers, User Interfaces, UI Frameworks. - Source-code analysis and manipulation (Static analysis, refactoring, type inference, metrics). - Team Management. - Testing, Extreme Programming / Practices. - Web Services, Internet Applications, Event-driven Programming. - Experience Reports. Important dates: Submission (Hard Deadline): September 17th, 2012 (Argentinian time: UTC/GMT -3 hours). Notification of acceptance: October 8th, 2012. Camera Ready Submission: November 2nd, 2012. Papers: Papers should be written in English, in PDF-format and should not exceed 15 pages (including references and figures), using the JOT journal format. Templates for LaTeX formats can be found at http://www.jot.fm/authors.html Papers must be submitted through the EasyChair submission web site at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=smalltalks12 The accepted papers will be digitally available on the conference website. We are currently negotiating a special edition of a journal for which the best papers will get invited. Papers submitted must not have been previously published and must not be under review for publication elsewhere. Papers must strictly adhere to submission guidelines. If you have questions, please send an e-mail to Jorge Ressia (ressia(a)iam.unibe.ch) Special Issue Publication -------------------------- The best papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work in a special issue of the International Journal JOT (The Journal of Object Technology), http://www.jot.fm/ Program Committee -------------------------- - Alexandre Bergel (DCC, Universidad de Chile, Chile) - Andy Kellens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) - Coen De Roover (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) - Damien Cassou (Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Potsdam, Germany) - Gabriela Arevalo (Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina) - Gonzalo Zabala (Universidad Abierta Interamericana, Argentina) - Hernan Wilkinson (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) - Jannik Laval (INRIA Lille/LABRI Bordeaux, France) - Johan Fabry (DCC, Universidad de Chile, Chile) - Luc Fabresse (Ecole des Mines Douai, France) - Lukas Renggli (Google, Switzerland) - Marcus Denker (INRIA Lille, France) - Mircea Lungu (University of Bern, Switzerland) - Noury Bouraqadi (Ecole des Mines Douai, France) - Serge Stinckwich (Institut de recherche pour le developppement, France) - Tudor Girba (Sw-eng. Software Engineering GmbH, Switzerland) Program Chair -------------------- Jorge Ressia (Univeristy of Bern, Switzerland)

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Altitude web framework presentation - Vancouver, BC
by Francois Stephany Aug. 1, 2012

Aug. 1, 2012

Hey Smalltalkers, The Vancouver Smalltalk developer group is meeting again. This time, Colin Putney will show us his new open source web framework: Altitude. http://forum.world.st/ANN-Altitude-td4640421.html The location of the event is still to be announced. Please email me if you/your company can/want to host the event. If nobody comes with a better suggestion, we can gather at the same place than last time (The Office — Cordova at Cambie, Gastown). The presentation will take place between 6th and 11th August 2012. Please answer the Doodle: http://www.doodle.com/uvif5cuuh9kmtf8y If possible, RSVP on the Meetup group, that will help me to organize: http://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Smalltalk-Developers-Group/events/74847972/ As usual, all Smalltalk levels are welcome ;) Cheers, Francois -- http://tulipemoutarde.be CA: +1 778 558 3225 BE: +32 65 709 131

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