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Re: [vwnc] JNIPort - is there anyone willing to maintain it?

by Joachim Geidel

Hi Jeremy, good to hear that Cincom Smalltalk is available for personal use again! However, there are three rules in the Personal Use License which make it impossible to use CST for developing or maintaining any non-profit open source project like JNIPort. I am sure that Cincom’s legal department has all the best intentions to protect Cincom’s intellectual property. However, what’s Cincom’s position regarding non-profit open source projects? Should the developers contact Cincom to get an individual permission to use Cincom Smalltalk for the project, or are they supposed to buy a commercial license if they don’t already have one? This is the rule which explicitly forbids open source development under the PUL, and there are no exemptions in the license text: „1.6 … Any code, components or software developed using the Product under this license must remain strictly for Your personal use.“ This clearly prohibits to use CST for developing anything which is published in any form and for any purpose, including contributions to CST. The next one even prohibits the use of CST for just reviewing or debugging code of someone else’s open source project and telling the author about your findings: „1.3 … You may not use the Product to … support any external projects, regardless of whether compensation is involved.“ And this one makes it complicated to use common Smalltalk development practices in an open source project: „1.6 … If any portion of the Product is provided in source code form, You may view, study and modify such code solely for personal, non-commercial exploration or experimentation on Your local devices. You may not: (i) publish or share the source code or any modifications; (ii) upload it to any public or private repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket); (iii) include it in any project, product or system intended for commercial use or distribution; or (iv) use it to create derivative works that are shared, sublicensed or deployed outside of Your own private use.“ It is often necessary to override a method by implementing a modified version of the method in a subclass, or directly override a method in an existing class (although I avoid that if I can). However, such a method can’t be included in an open source project, as this is not „for personal, non-commercial exploration or experimentation on Your local devices“, and it is not allowed to publish such code „to any public or private repository“. Which by the way also excludes the Cincom Public Repository. Best regards Joachim Geidel > Am 08.10.2025 um 18:16 schrieb Jordan, Jeremy <JJordan(a)cincom.com>: > > Yes, Colin! You are correct and we are very excited to announce PUL 9! In case any of you aren't on the Cincom Smalltalk Digest newsletter subscription, here's the announcement we put out on Tuesday of last week: > > PUL 9: A Giant Leap Forward: Now Compatible with macOS! > > Cincom is excited to announce PUL 9, a groundbreaking upgrade that brings full macOS compatibility to our personal use non-commercial license version that empowers developers to build and maintain applications seamlessly across platforms. >

Oct. 28, 2025

UKSTUG Meeting: Hernán Wilkinson & Juan Vuletich - Keeping up with Cuis Smalltalk - 29 October 2025

by UK Smalltalk

For our October meeting, Hernán Wilkinson and Juan Vuletich will tell us about recent developments in Cuis Smalltalk ( https://cuis.st/ ). These range from kernel functionality like Ephemerons and the Sista Bytecodes set to app developer tools like a visual GUI Designer and additional Layout policies. Hernán Wilkinson ( https://github.com/hernanwilkinson ) Passionate programmer. Smalltalk lover. Founder of 10Pines and FAST (Argentine Foundation of Smalltalk). Professor of the FCEyN at the UBA. Teaches OO and Agile techniques at the university and the industry. Key Note Speaker of many national and international conferences. Contributes to many Smalltalk opensource projects. Promotes self organized organizations and agile methodologies. You can follow him in Twitter at @hernanwilkinson Juan Vuletich ( https://www.jvuletich.org/ ) Juan Vuletich is the founder and lead developer of Cuis Smalltalk. He is a long-standing Open Source Smalltalk community member, having contributed kernel code to Cuis, Squeak and the OpenSmalltalk VM for over 25 years. Juan has been programming since he was 14, and doing it professionally since he was 17. He holds an MS.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Buenos Aires. He works at LabWare. 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/311117386/ ) to receive the meeting details.

Oct. 27, 2025

Re: [vwnc] JNIPort - is there anyone willing to maintain it?

by Jordan, Jeremy

Yes, Colin! You are correct and we are very excited to announce PUL 9! In case any of you aren't on the Cincom Smalltalk Digest newsletter subscription, here's the announcement we put out on Tuesday of last week: PUL 9: A Giant Leap Forward: Now Compatible with macOS! Cincom is excited to announce PUL 9, a groundbreaking upgrade that brings full macOS compatibility to our personal use non-commercial license version that empowers developers to build and maintain applications seamlessly across platforms. Beyond this game-changing Mac support, PUL 9 delivers powerful enhancements designed to boost efficiency, scalability, and performance: * Enhanced Development Efficiency: Advanced debugging, smarter source management, and streamlined project organization for faster, error-free coding. * True Cross-Platform Compatibility: Run applications reliably on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix. * Support for Modern Workloads: 64-bit VMs, larger object spaces, and updated frameworks handle complex apps without performance trade-offs. PUL 9 delivers a modern Smalltalk environment with all the latest and greatest features of Cincom Smalltalk. Ready to Try Cincom Smalltalk? Start Here. The best way to begin your journey with Cincom Smalltalk is with our Personal Use Non-Commercial License. The PUL 9 is designed specifically for individuals new to our platform. It provides a development environment for you to enjoy Cincom's latest technology. Please note that our latest commercial version, Cincom Smalltalk 9.5, is currently available to existing customers and partners. If you or your company would like access to this new release, we would love to hear from you. Simply reach out to the Cincom Smalltalk Team<mailto:CSSTARTeam@cincom.com?subject=>, and we’ll connect you with the right person to guide you through your options. 👉 Download our personal use non-commercial version<https://www.cincom.com/smalltalk/download-pul> today and start building with confidence. Also, in the very near future, we will be moving conversations like this one in the VWNC mailing list to cincomsmalltalk.com. There, we will have a forum where these, and other discussions, can be made in a community setting. [cid:7a225c73-65e4-4232-ad37-2317c3af188f] Jeremy Jordan Senior Marketing Manager Office: +1 513-612-2147 Mobile: +1 513-519-6711 cincom.com<https://cincom.com/> cincomsmalltalk.com<https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/> ________________________________ From: vwnc-request(a)lists.siebelschool.illinois.edu <vwnc-request(a)lists.siebelschool.illinois.edu> on behalf of Colin Sare-Soar <colin.saresoar(a)terrashape.co.uk> Sent: Friday, October 3, 2025 9:10 AM To: Thomas Sattler <tomsattler(a)gmail.com>; Joachim Geidel <joachim.geidel(a)posteo.de> Cc: vwnc(a)lists.siebelschool.illinois.edu <vwnc(a)lists.siebelschool.illinois.edu>; pharo-users(a)lists.pharo.org <pharo-users(a)lists.pharo.org>; esug-list(a)lists.esug.org <esug-list(a)lists.esug.org> Subject: Re: [vwnc] JNIPort - is there anyone willing to maintain it? CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Cincom's email system. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Thanks - If in doubt, contact the Service Desk at it.servicedesk(a)partnerone.com or your local IT personnel. Some people who received this message don't often get email from colin.saresoar(a)terrashape.co.uk. Learn why this is important<https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIde…> That's all changed today! Cincom have released PUL v9 I've applied for a copy, just waiting for the email now :-) Colin On 25/09/2025 00:31 +07 Thomas Sattler <tomsattler(a)gmail.com> wrote: Joachim, Cincom has basically abandoned the VWNC distribution. The "latest" version one can obtain without paying for a license is VW 8.3, which was released in 2017. it's hard to imagine people spending a lot of time and effort enhancing a system that old, when the vendor isn't committed to it. I'm sure Cincom is committed to the paying customers, but why should we help with that? --Tom On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM Joachim Geidel <joachim.geidel(a)posteo.de<mailto:joachim.geidel@posteo.de>> wrote: Dear fellow Smalltalkers, JNIPort is an interface from Smalltalk to the Java VM which was originally developed by Chris Uppal for Dolphin Smalltalk. It enables Smalltalk applications to use software written in Java seamlessly, locally and with low overhead, without resorting to network based interfaces like e.g. using microservices. Documentation is at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/site/jniport/__;!!DZ3f…<https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:…> . I have ported JNIPort to VisualWorks and Pharo, and Ben van Dijk, Adriaan van Os and Rolf van der Vleuten have ported it to VASt (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://vastgoodies.com/projects/JNIPort__;!!DZ…<https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:…> ). The last time I really worked on JNIPort was in 2014, if I remember correctly. Now that I am retired and haven’t written a single line of Smalltalk code in five years, I am wondering if there is anybody willing to take over. I haven’t had any enquiries about JNIPort since 2020, so the task would be easy: - Take over ownership of the documentation site. - Possibly move the source code for the Pharo version to Gitlab (it is still in the ancient SmalltalkHub repository). - Optionally integrate any changes from JNIPort users, e.g. when they adapt it to more recent versions of VisualWorks or Pharo. There hasn't been any community input since 2017 (or was it 2019?). If nobody takes over, then JNIPort will be one of the many abandoned open source projects and disappear sooner or later when SmalltalkHub, the Cincom Public Repository and the documentation site are switched off. On the other hand, I do not know if there is actually anybody using JNIPort. If it has no users, there is no harm in its disappearance, and maintaining it would be a waste of time. Cheers Joachim Geidel

Oct. 8, 2025

Smalltalk Meetup in Zurich, 31 October 2025

by Peter Ursprung

Hi all, We are organizing the next Smalltalk Meetup in Zurich, Switzerland. It will be on Friday, 31 October 2025, starting at 18:00. We will meet in a meeting room where we will have short Smalltalk talks, then we will go to a nearby restaurant. If you are interested, please register on this website by Friday, 24 October 2025: https://zurich.smalltalk.world <https://zurich.smalltalk.world> Would you like to show something interesting? Please indicate the topic of your desired presentation when registering. Regards, Peter

Sept. 29, 2025

Smalltalker available

by M. Roberts

Hi everyone, I hope you're well. Long time Smalltalker here, currently seeking new opportunities in the field. If you happen to know of any openings for someone with my experience, I'd love to connect. Feel free to pass my info along or drop me a message—I'd really appreciate it! Thanks so much, Mark Roberts https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-roberts-93139b384/

Sept. 29, 2025

Re: [vwnc] JNIPort - is there anyone willing to maintain it?

by Joachim Geidel

Dear Thomas, I definitely do not see the maintenance of JNIPort as enhancing Cincom’s products. You wouldn’t consider writing an open source application running on MS Windows or an open source library for developers who are working on Windows being an „enhancement“ of Windows, thus benefiting MS, or would you? While Cincom was so kind to including it as a contribution in the VisualWorks distribution, it has also been available for Dolphin Smalltalk, Pharo, and VASt in a long time. JNIPort has always been developed completely independently from any of the companies offering Smalltalk IDEs. JNIPort works on VW 8.3, as far as I know, so there’s no work to be done at all for making it work for VWNC users. But even if VWNC is no longer actively supported by Cincom, there may still be Cincom customers who are interested in using JNIPort on one of the more recent VisualWorks versions, and who could have an interest in adapting it to that version. In such a case, a JNIPort user’s contribution in the form of an update would be uploaded directly to the Cincom public repository. I don’t see how this would mean „a lot of time and effort“ for a potential maintainer of JNIPort apart from updating some small parts of the JNIPort documentation. And then, there’s Pharo, which has an active community, and which I suspect to have more active users now than Cincom Smalltalk. Migrating JNIPort to Pharo 14 with some help from the Pharo community shouldn’t be a lot of work. I am simply looking for someone willing to keep the strings together and to prevent that JNIPort accidentally disappears, not someone who invests a lot of time and effort in active development. My ideas about the maintainer’s role: Someone wants to use it, work has to be done to make it work, so they do it themselves and tell the maintainer about it, who then updates the docs. Google switches off Google Sites - the maintainer moves the documentation to another place. And that’s more or less it, unless the maintainer wants to have some fun with enhancing JNIPort for some reason, just as I did when I ported it to VW and Pharo just because I thought that might be interesting and fun (and it was). Joachim > Am 24.09.2025 um 19:31 schrieb Thomas Sattler <tomsattler(a)gmail.com>: > > Joachim, > > Cincom has basically abandoned the VWNC distribution. The "latest" version one can obtain without paying for a license is VW 8.3, which was released in 2017. > > it's hard to imagine people spending a lot of time and effort enhancing a system that old, when the vendor isn't committed to it. I'm sure Cincom is committed to the paying customers, but why should we help with that? > > --Tom > > > > On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM Joachim Geidel <joachim.geidel(a)posteo.de <mailto:joachim.geidel@posteo.de>> wrote: >> Dear fellow Smalltalkers, >> >> JNIPort is an interface from Smalltalk to the Java VM which was originally developed by Chris Uppal for Dolphin Smalltalk. It enables Smalltalk applications to use software written in Java seamlessly, locally and with low overhead, without resorting to network based interfaces like e.g. using microservices. Documentation is at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/site/jniport/__;!!DZ3f… . >> >> I have ported JNIPort to VisualWorks and Pharo, and Ben van Dijk, Adriaan van Os and Rolf van der Vleuten have ported it to VASt (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://vastgoodies.com/projects/JNIPort__;!!DZ… ). >> >> The last time I really worked on JNIPort was in 2014, if I remember correctly. Now that I am retired and haven’t written a single line of Smalltalk code in five years, I am wondering if there is anybody willing to take over. >> >> I haven’t had any enquiries about JNIPort since 2020, so the task would be easy: >> - Take over ownership of the documentation site. >> - Possibly move the source code for the Pharo version to Gitlab (it is still in the ancient SmalltalkHub repository). >> - Optionally integrate any changes from JNIPort users, e.g. when they adapt it to more recent versions of VisualWorks or Pharo. There hasn't been any community input since 2017 (or was it 2019?). >> >> If nobody takes over, then JNIPort will be one of the many abandoned open source projects and disappear sooner or later when SmalltalkHub, the Cincom Public Repository and the documentation site are switched off. >> >> On the other hand, I do not know if there is actually anybody using JNIPort. If it has no users, there is no harm in its disappearance, and maintaining it would be a waste of time. >> >> Cheers >> Joachim Geidel

Sept. 25, 2025

JNIPort - is there anyone willing to maintain it?

by Joachim Geidel

Dear fellow Smalltalkers, JNIPort is an interface from Smalltalk to the Java VM which was originally developed by Chris Uppal for Dolphin Smalltalk. It enables Smalltalk applications to use software written in Java seamlessly, locally and with low overhead, without resorting to network based interfaces like e.g. using microservices. Documentation is at https://sites.google.com/site/jniport/. I have ported JNIPort to VisualWorks and Pharo, and Ben van Dijk, Adriaan van Os and Rolf van der Vleuten have ported it to VASt (https://vastgoodies.com/projects/JNIPort) The last time I really worked on JNIPort was in 2014, if I remember correctly. Now that I am retired and haven’t written a single line of Smalltalk code in five years, I am wondering if there is anybody willing to take over. I haven’t had any enquiries about JNIPort since 2020, so the task would be easy: - Take over ownership of the documentation site. - Possibly move the source code for the Pharo version to Gitlab (it is still in the ancient SmalltalkHub repository). - Optionally integrate any changes from JNIPort users, e.g. when they adapt it to more recent versions of VisualWorks or Pharo. There hasn't been any community input since 2017 (or was it 2019?). If nobody takes over, then JNIPort will be one of the many abandoned open source projects and disappear sooner or later when SmalltalkHub, the Cincom Public Repository and the documentation site are switched off. On the other hand, I do not know if there is actually anybody using JNIPort. If it has no users, there is no harm in its disappearance, and maintaining it would be a waste of time. Cheers Joachim Geidel

Sept. 24, 2025

UKSTUG Meeting: Esteban Lorenzano - Pharo 13 - 24 September 2025

by UK Smalltalk

Earlier this year, the Pharo development team announced the availability of Pharo 13 ( https://pharo.org/news/2025-05-21-pharo13-released.html ). For our September 2025 meeting, Pharo's release manager Esteban Lorenzano will give us a tour of the new version - what's changed, and what remains the same. Esteban Lorenzano ( https://github.com/estebanlm ) studied Computer Sciences at Universidad de Buenos Aires, and worked since 1994 in several object-oriented and low-level technologies, in different software companies, serving in various positions from programmer to senior architect. In 2007 he co-founded Smallworks to offer Pharo-based agile development projects. Since 2012 he dedicated full time to developing the Pharo code and community. He works with the INRIA-EVREF team in Lille, France, as core developer for Pharo, being responsible with the coordination of new releases and the implementation and maintenance of several Pharo libraries. 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/310635970/) to receive the meeting details.

Sept. 23, 2025

Mailinglist esug: Server move is done

by Marcus Denker

Hello, We have moved the ESUG mailinglist to the new server. - all subscribers have been moved over - but not any special config options that you might have configured. If you want to configure your subscription (or unsubcribe), you have to create an account. (this makes sense to do right away, even if you do not need it now) Please sign up at http://lists.esug.org/accounts/signup using the email adress with which you are subscribed to the list. If you have any problems / suggestions, do not hesitate to send a mail to me. Marcus

Sept. 16, 2025

Smalltalk journey - next opportunities ?

by Cyrille Delaunay

Hello dear community ! I started my Smalltalk journey 16 years ago and since then I have been delighted to keep it going all along my career path. I have been excited to make it real and to meet great people on the road. I will be seeking new challenges. If you think this background can be of interest for your project or your team, feel free to reach out :) Cyrille Delaunay linkedin.com/in/cyrille-delaunay-307a4a57

Sept. 16, 2025