Category Archives: community

S8 Release Candidate – Smalltalk on JS

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Abstract:

The presentation will introduce the debut of S8. S8 is Smalltalk running over javascript execution engines on all major browser flavors. Its a generic framework but with initial implementations and objectives for the development of social networking and mobile applications. The presentation will discuss examples of this including the targetting of Android devices.

The S8 project is part of a medium/long term plan to find new models of development with Smalltalk. We will start reflecting on the major limitations imposed by traditional formulation of Smalltalk, and by concecuences imposed by the lackof experts in VM development. The S8 design let us(smalltalkers) exploit new architectures capable to run our systems on top of modern object execution engines (javascript engines in this release). It will be shown how we are using the platform to start development of applications for web (client & server side), multiple OS and devices (e.g. tablets and phones) migrating frameworks from other smalltalk environments and/or interfacing to javascript (and java) frameworks. We will also introduce U8, the first service for social network development using Smalltalk, will be made to show a concrete solution using S8 execution frameworks to implement browser based service designed to promote evolution of contents from contributors.

Presenter Bio:

Alejandro Reimondo has been working with Smalltalk from 1987. He implemented the first enterprise level Smalltalk system deployed in Argentina. Ever since he has been activelly involved in the promotion and use of Smalltalk. He was one of the founders of SUGAR, the first Spanish speaking Smalltalk user group about and repository of Smalltalk “goodies” for which Ale has contributed the vast majority.

He wrote the first implementations of embedded Squeak in web pages. Founded Smalltalking (april 2001),a non-proffit association for the research and promotion of new points of view development using Object-oriented frameworks. Ale is actively involved in development of complete Smalltalk environments, from VM design to the application layer with the core objective of securing to preserve the investment made in legacy frameworks and enviroments in the context of the ever changing world of software development.

Links:
http://www.aleReimondo.com
http://www.smalltalking.net

Please join us on Tuesday March 6, 2012  to greet Alejandro Reimondo as he makes his NYC Smallltalk Developer’s group debut with a very exciting Smalltalk Javascript application development framework.

Presentation will start promptly at 7:00 at the offices of Suite LLC where our gracious host Gerard is sure to have some cold ones waiting for us. Our presentations are open to the general public, bring a friend ! There will be an open house from 6:30 – 7pm for some pre-presentation chat.


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Suite LLC
One Grand Central Place
60 East 42nd Street, Suite 914
New York, NY 10165
Phone: 212.485.3200

 

Redline Smalltalk

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Scheduled for Thursday March 17th , 2011

Redline Smalltalk is Smalltalk for the Java Virtual Machine, because nothing is as productive as Smalltalk and the app has to run on the Java Virtual Machine.  Redline compiles from source code directly to bytecode and is compatible with Pharo syntax. While Smalltalk on the JVM has been tried before there are some significant innovations coming with Redline, which will be detailed. These are:   1. Tight integration with Java (call Java from Smalltalk and Smalltalk from Java). This brings a wealth of libraries into Smalltalk including good Concurrency support which some Smalltalks have been lacking.  2. New tooling to support faster development and testing: stir – Smalltalk interactive command line, with the ability to connect to local and remote servers. stake – Smalltalk make tool (like Make and Rubys Rake) cucumber – Smalltalk port of the popular BDD tool Cucumber.  3. Eclipse plugin and hopefully soon an IntelliJ plugin.  The talk will also detail the journey from an idea of Smalltalk on the JVM and various attempts at building it, through to Redline now.   It will present that Smalltalk is not dead nor dying but in fact about to take on a new life on a platform where it can gain more traction and wider adoption. The presentation will also call for people to participate in the further development and support of Redline. Redline is free and open source under the MIT license. See http://redline.st.

Bio:
James Ladd has been developing software for 25+ years, using most core languages from Assembler through Smalltalk and now Java and Ruby.

I’m keen to help others learn how to be better developers as well as improving my own skills. My mission is to see Smalltalk make a comeback in a big way.

Getting more from your Multicore, with Polycephaly

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arden

This presentation discusses some basic strategies for how Smalltalk can leverage multi-core computers, and the results of using a new simple framework that is now included with Cincom’s VisualWorks and ObjectStudio.

Bio:

Arden Thomas started using Smalltalk in 1986, when he was exploring better ways to do software development.  He found it.  Arden has worked with Smalltalk as a developer, trainer, consultant, and field SE.  Arden Thomas is currently the product manager of Cincom Smalltalk.

Please join us on Thurs Feb 24th for this interesting discussion with Cincom Smalltalk’s product manager.  Open house starts at 6:30 followed by the presentation at 7pm. Beverages will be available. Bring a friend !

The Zen of Smalltalk Algorithm Coding

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Postponed due to the weather until next wednesday.

Bio:

Florin Mateoc is a professional programmer for more than 20 years. He has programmed in Fortran, assembly, Basic, C, C++, Smalltalk, Java and C#. He is not a Smalltalk bigot,he does not think that Smalltalk is either perfect or the end of the evolutionary line of programming languages. He just thinks that nothing better has come along yet. Since discovering Smalltalk in 1995, he has worked with Enfin/ObjectStudio, VisualWorks and VisualAge and he has played with Squeak. He has especiallyenjoyed developing tools: he has contributed improvements to the profilers in VisualWorks, he has developed collaboration (patch and release management) and comparison tools on top of Envy, he has worked on type inferencing for Smalltalk and on automatic translation from Smalltalk to Java.

Abstract:

Taking to heart some advice from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Florin has taken a truly circuitous route to what started as an intention to develop some better comparison tools. This took him to investigate longest common subsequence algorithms, then to a naive implemention in Smalltalk of a classic algorithm (Hirschberg), then playing with more and more optimized versions, through the discovery of an algorithmic improvement, and finally fighting the inadequacies of simple time recording and profiling tools for fine-grained performance measurements.

Please stop by and visit with us on Dec 1st , 2010 where our long time friend Florin will be discussing how his Smalltalk implementation of a classic algorithm and how the Zen of Smalltalk made it possible.

As always our meetings are open to the general public, so bring a friend.

6:30 – 7pm and the presentation starts 7pm.

Please make note of our new directions:


60 East 42nd Street, Suite 914

Now Leaving Flatland…

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sean

Abstract:

If you enjoy frequent (and long) personal breaks while waiting for your code to compile, stop reading now.  If tears of pride well up every time you behold the library of books you steamed through to learn C++, don’t come to this presentation.  We’ll be talking about Squeak & Pharo – active, open source, production-quality Smalltalk, and what makes it the baddest language on the block… 30 years later!  You may never have the heart to open your Java IDE again – here’s why:
* Productivity – 2.5 times more productive than Java or C++, with less errors
* Easy to learn – sending messages to objects is the only concept
* Fun – write only code that matters, just the way you want; make any part of the system work how you say it should

Bio:

Sean DeNigris is the President and Lead Scientist of Clipper Adams, a NYC-based consulting firm.  His mission is to support people in fulfilling on what matters to them.  Therefore, most of his current work is on realizing Doug Engelbart’s vision of making a difference in the world by using computers to enhance human intellect.  For ten years, he has gotten into the minds of users and created the business software they would have created (if they knew how to program).  He is also a regular contributor to Squeak and Pharo, and participates in the Smalltalk community and its conferences world-wide.

Please join us on  wed, Sept 22, 2010. We are located right by Grand Central , we have an open house from 6:30 – 7pm and the presentation starts 7pm. Please make note of our new directions:


60 East 42nd Street, Suite 914


Twittering from Smalltalk

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First presentation of the year is by our good friend James Robertson. Please note that our venue has changed. Our very gracious and kind host Gerard has moved to the Grand Central Area of town.

The new address is:

60 East 42nd Street, Suite 914

I will update the site soon, just got back from a quick vacation visiting my 91 year old Dad.

Details:

Bio:

http://www.jarober.com/blog/blogView?content=aboutMe

Abstract:

Smalltalk and network APIs – I’ll talk about, and demonstrate, interfaces to services like Twitter and Facebook, as well as some simple examples of building RESTful interfaces within Smalltalk.

We’ll of course go out for drinks after the meeting .  Bring a friend.

Visit by Julian Fitzell co-creator of Seaside

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Julian Fitzell which along with Avi Bryant co-created Seaside is coming through town and wanted to stop by and visit with us.  So we figure we would catch up with what  he is doing with Squeak and of course go for drinks afterwards.

The  meeting is on the 10th. Same time same place. Open house at 6:30 , presentation at 7pm.

See you all there.
Bio:

Julian Fitzell is, among other things, the co-creator of the Seaside
framework. He currently works as an independent consultant, providing
Seaside and Smalltalk consulting, development, and training.

Julian has contributed to numerous other open-source projects
including Monticello, Squeak and Pharo Smalltalks, the Mantis bug
tracker, and Dovecot mail server. He has been using Smalltalk since he
made the jump from Ruby in about 2001. Over the past 18 months, he has
lived in China and Germany as well as his original hometown:
Vancouver, Canada.

Abstract:

Seaside is a rare example of software that runs on all the major
Smalltalk platforms: Pharo, Gemstone, GNU Smalltalk, Squeak, VA
Smalltalk, and VisualWorks. We’ll take a look at some of the
challenges in keeping the framework portable and some of the
techniques the team has developed to deal with these. Along the way we
may also touch on tools such as Grease, Slime, and Monticello and how
they help the process. And then we’ll see where the discussion
lead

Return To Smalltalk

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Join us on November 18th for Dan Antion’s experience report on their return to Smalltalk.

Bio:

Daniel Antion is Vice President, Information Services at American Nuclear Insurers. He is responsible for the overall planning and implementation of technology and communication services for ANI and is part of a team addressing Enterprise Content Management. Dan is also responsible for technical and ECM training. ANI is a small but technically oriented company so Dan’s view is both from 30,000 feet and from in the trenches.
Dan has been working in Smalltalk since 1994 and develops most of ANI’s transaction processing systems. Dan has presented at Smalltalk Solutions, OOPSLA and the AIIM Expo on topics related to systems development, content management and SharePoint.

Talking Points:

1) Why we were driven away from Smalltalk – I think our environment is not unlike many shops in that we have good, solid but aging systems lacking hooks into modern technology

2) The analysis round #1 – In our first study, Smalltalk (and our other existing platform) lost big time to C#.

3) Turning Points – There were several bits of information that came to the surface as we started to make our move that made us want to reconsider our decision. These are the things that I think would be most useful for others in a similar situation.

4) Analysis round #2 – This was harder. We had already announced our plans and now we had to argue against our previous decision but still look like we knew what we were talking about.

5) Revised Direction – I’m not sure we saved Smalltalk forever but we bought it some serious time. The technical details that work for Smalltalk include its stability, malleability and extensibility. We still have concerns but we think they can be mitigated.

From Smalltalk to Ruby – and back again ?

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kerhonkson-headshot4Please join us for our next meeting on Oct. 21st where Paul Bennett will give his Smalltalker’s perspective on Ruby based on his recent experiences.

The presentation starts at 7 pm , however there is an open house from 6:30.  Presentations are generally up to 1.5 hours after which most of us go to a local pub and continue the discussion there.  Our meetings are opened to the general public , so bring a friend.

Bio and abstract provided by Paul below:

Bio:

Hi, I’m Paul Bennett, president, janitor and teaboy of Prajna Inc, an
independent software consulting firm based in NYC. I’ve been building
software systems for over 25 years, and have extensive experience in
the architecture, building and specification of custom, large-scale
enterprise IT systems, mostly in Smalltalk. My clients have included
MorganStanley, Keyspan/National Grid and JPMorganChase. I’ve also had
major exposure to C/C++, and have also built a couple of Java
projects. I’m currently oriented to programming in Ruby and Erlang.

Abstract:

“From Smalltalk to Ruby – and back again ?”

Ward Cunningham once said “I always knew Smalltalk would make a
comeback, but I didn’t know it would be called Ruby”. Is Ruby really
the new Smalltalk? In this talk, I’ll introduce Ruby and it’s context,
explore some of it’s more interesting features and defects, and
describe what I think Smalltalk, and the Smalltalk community, might
offer it.

How Groovy is Groovy ?

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numanabstract: we will start off with a survey of main language features esp. what makes groovy dynamic. then see some metaprogramming tricks that make it easy to work with xml and gui builders and creation of internal DSLs. finally touch on the grails web framework. there will be lots of demos along the way to show how programming in groovy can be fun.

bio: Numan Salati has a master’s in computer science from georgia tech speciallizing in artificial intelligence and has programmed professionally in java and python for over 3 years. He likes learning programming languages, traveling and reading.

Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Date: Sept 23rd , 2009