The Weekly Squeak

Category: SqueakSource

  • Announcing the Multicast Project for Squeak

    Announcing the Multicast Project for Squeak

    Tony Garnock-Jones recently announced on the Squeak Developers mailing list (here) a new contribution to the Squeak community: Multicast, a project that brings UDP multicast socket support to Squeak.

    The project has been published on SqueakSource (here), where you can obtain the code and experiment with it directly. Tony also provided the file-in code with his announcement.

    What Does Multicast Do?

    Multicast provides the necessary support code for creating and using UDP multicast sockets within Squeak. This makes it possible for Squeak images to participate in group communication over networks – an important feature for distributed applications and collaborative tools. Check out the mailing list thread for more information on what multicasting does.

    Current Status and Platform Support

    • Tested on macOS: Initial testing has been done successfully.
    • Linux support: Testing is planned soon.
    • Windows users: Contributions are welcome – help testing Multicast on Windows would be especially valuable.

    Requirements

    To use Multicast, you will need:

    • A current Trunk version of Squeak
    • The SocketPlugin enabled

    How to Help

    Community involvement is encouraged! If you are running Squeak on Linux or Windows, testing Multicast and reporting results would be a great way to contribute.

    Have a great time with Smalltalk and keep on Squeaking!

    Photo by GuerrillaBuzz from Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-blue-lights-iFj_9n695ns

  • SqueakSource 3 beta available

    Soon to be replaced?

    Although we all work with SqueakSource every day, it has been in need of some care and attention for some time now. Fortunately, Tobias Pape and colleagues have been working on a total re-work of the SqueakSource code, and have now announced the availability of their first beta of SqueakSource3, named “Easter Fire”.

    SqueakSource3 is a port of the original SqueakSource to Seaside 3 and Magritte 2. It is based on the original SqueakSource by Lukas Renggli, Adrian Lienhard, and Avi Bryant.

    The developers’ plan for SqueakSource3 is:
    • Have it running on GemStone, esp. GemStone 3 beta
    • Provide a cleaner external API (may be REST or XMLRPC)
    • Provide a more clear modularization and extension api
    • Stability
    • You name it! Suggestions are welcome.

    SqueakSource3 is expected to run on GemStone/GLASS as well as on squeakish Smalltalks, ie, Pharo and Squeak. This beta has been tested on GemStone 2.4.4.x/GLASS 1.0-beta.8 and Squeak4.2 both with Seaside 3.0.4. Pharo tests are pending.

    SqueakSource3 incorporates work done in several SqueakSource forks such as access to diffs in a browser as done by Bert Freudenberg for source.squeak.org and a basic issue tracker contributed by Dale Henrichs. Other key contributors to the project include Philippe Marschal, Dale Henrichs, and Gerhard Obermann have contributed much to SqueakSource3.

    See the release announcement for more information, and for instructions on how to install the new code