Communication among Dolphin and other Smalltalks

Hi all,

I just want to know how i can let Dolphin Smalltalk communicate with
other Smalltalks.
By way of an example, i would like to call a method in Visual Age with
a paramter (name of a class), which answers all subclasses from this
class back do Dolphin.
Thanks a lot!

regards
Marco

Marco,

> I just want to know how i can let Dolphin Smalltalk communicate with
> other Smalltalks.
> By way of an example, i would like to call a method in Visual Age with
> a paramter (name of a class), which answers all subclasses from this
> class back do Dolphin.

This isn't so much a Smalltalk question as an IPC (inter-process
communication) question.  In good conscience, I need to warn you off of
DCOM, **unless** you can guarantee that you have a really clean network and
you don't care about down time.  If you don't mind rebooting either/both
machines on a random basis, then it might be a nice way to go.  Most CORBA
ORBs appear to be vastly better than DCOM in their error handling, but, I'm
not aware of a CORBA ORB for Dolphin.

Sockets are arguably the great common denominator of IPC, and if you want to
issue a few simple requests and get back string answers, they are not
terribly difficult to use.  The caveat is that it might take you a while to
get the error handling exactly right.  The Dolphin Chat sample should get
you started if you want to use sockets.

Finally, you might consider SOAP.  I know of Dolphin and Squeak
implementations, and there's probably something for VA; if not, you might be
able to port one of the existing implementations to it.  If you try a port,
keep Richard Harmon and SIF (Smalltalk Interchange Format) in mind - it's a
great way to get code out of one Smalltalk and into another.  Put another
way, it allows you to debug the code rather than the .st/.cls files :)

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]

Marco wrote:

Marco,

        we are in an experimental phase of using the OmniBase serializer to pass
complete objects (instances) from Dolphin Smalltalk to a Visual Age on
Linux trhough sockets.

        The OmniBase is available for both Smalltalks so...

        We are getting encouraging results.

regards,

Seb

"Bill Schwab" <[hidden email]> wrote (with possible
editing):

...snip

>Sockets are arguably the great common denominator of IPC, and if you want to
>issue a few simple requests and get back string answers, they are not
>terribly difficult to use.  The caveat is that it might take you a while to
>get the error handling exactly right.  The Dolphin Chat sample should get
>you started if you want to use sockets.

That's a great tip.  I'm there at the moment

>Finally, you might consider SOAP.  I know of Dolphin and Squeak
>implementations, and there's probably something for VA; if not, you might be
>able to port one of the existing implementations to it.  If you try a port,
>keep Richard Harmon and SIF (Smalltalk Interchange Format) in mind - it's a
>great way to get code out of one Smalltalk and into another.  Put another
>way, it allows you to debug the code rather than the .st/.cls files :)

Can you point me towards the Dolphin implementation?  I must have
missed that completely.

Thanks,

Larry
--
[hidden email]

Larry,

> >Finally, you might consider SOAP.  I know of Dolphin and Squeak
> >implementations, and there's probably something for VA; if not, you might
be
> >able to port one of the existing implementations to it.  If you try a
port,
> >keep Richard Harmon and SIF (Smalltalk Interchange Format) in mind - it's
a
> >great way to get code out of one Smalltalk and into another.  Put another
> >way, it allows you to debug the code rather than the .st/.cls files :)
>
> Can you point me towards the Dolphin implementation?  I must have
> missed that completely.

Do you mean SOAP?  If so it's here:

 http://www.dolphinharbor.org/qad/welcome/index.html

I'm having trouble finding Richard's site on the web at the moment anyway.
Worst case, I have the packages.  Hopefully Richard will come forward with a
current version.  Failing that, and assuming it's not prohibited by
legalese, I can put them on my web site.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]

"Bill Schwab" <"mailto:[hidden email]"> wrote in message
"news:aa90u4$8sdnt$[hidden email]"...> Larry,
>
> > >Finally, you might consider SOAP. I know of Dolphin and Squeak
> > >implementations, and there's probably something for VA; if not, you
might
> be
> > >able to port one of the existing implementations to it. If you try a
> port,
> > >keep Richard Harmon and SIF (Smalltalk Interchange Format) in mind -
it's
> a
> > >great way to get code out of one Smalltalk and into another. Put
another a
> current version. Failing that, and assuming it's not prohibited by
> legalese, I can put them on my web site.


No restrictions at all.  Anyone who finds it useful is welcome to it.

I moved out to Westminster, California, (just a short way from Disneyland)
in January for some medical treatment.  I no longer have a computer but do
have a CD copy of my work.

My personal website that had the Dolphin 4.0 and Squeak 2.7 versions went
away when I dropped my ISP.

I had versions for DO 3.0 and SQ 2.7 up on it.  Much of the project code is
common and portable so it was in .SIF files.

I then updated the Dolphin 3.0 version for 4.0, fixed some errors, added
some ANSI Tests, but didn't update the SQ 2.7 to keep the two in sync.  I
realized this, did a quick and dirty fix of  Squeak.  That's where I had to
stop when I moved.

I'll  need to sort out the Squeak changes into the various project parts
(ANSI Tests, SIF, etc), recheck that all works with Dolphin and Squeak.

I figure about a week or so of actual work, but using a friend's computer,
it will take much longer to do.

My permanent email address is [hidden email] and I get to a public
library to do email about once a week.