Machine gun the Balloon!

Joe,

On Fri, 2016-05-06 at 13:23 -0700, Joseph Alotta wrote:
> I am a beginner with Squeak and the problem I am facing is not
> knowing how to go about using the tools available. 

Having gone through this myself not too many years ago, yet before
things really started to get crazy (in good and bad ways) in the Squeak
world, I appreciate what you're saying.  Squeak and its dialects can
seem pretty impenetrable until you learn 'the basics' which
unfortunately are a bit of a moving target (esp. re: the tools and UI)
depending on what you're trying to learn/do.

>
> There is a lot of language information, but not a “here’s what we do”
> best practices for developers.  I don’t mean coding, but I mean, how
> to find the resource I need.  How to build your project in pieces
> that you can test, etc.   

This is where things probably get pretty tough once you get beyond the
absolute basics.  In its effort to get better, things are constantly
being broken in ways that are often no big deal once you get over the
hump and learn your way around.  However, they're changing enough to
'break' a lot of the existing tutorials and they're changing often
enough that said tutorials don't seem to be getting updated to reflect
the changes in later releases.  As if this weren't enough, there are
factions with different views on overall direction which directly
impacts things like best practices and is why we have different
'distros' ala Squeak/Pharo/Cuis/etc.


> What I was looking for is an Apprentice kind of relationship, but
> nobody seems interested or nearby. 
>

That's probably going to be difficult as Smalltalk has a very small
population of programmers vs. other languages.  So getting someone with
experience to spend 1-on-1 time with is going to be difficult and/or
expensive.  Your best bet to get started is to read the mailing lists
(I would recommend this list, squeak-dev, and cuis as they are all good
places to ask basic questions) and just ask when you get stuck.  There
are a few good written works you can use as a starting point (you might
want to check out something from http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) and
there are several people who have put together some good intro material
on YouTube (For example Lawson English <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist
?list=PL6601A198DF14788D and the late James Robertson https://www.youtu
be.com/playlist?list=PL61A023880D3529DB have put together some basic
stuff that should be helpful)

Something I'd highly recommend: if you find a tutorial you like, find
out what version of whatever dialect they based the tutorial on and try
to use that *exact* version (or at least get as close as you can: if
something was written with Squeak 3.x in mind, don't use Squeak 4.x to
try to follow along etc.)  This will minimize the pain of trying to
mentally map the tutorial to a different VM/image with even a slightly
different feature set and UI.  When you're just getting started, that's
not the time you want to be worried about using the bleeding edge VM or
image.  If you can't figure out what version to use, post details and
ask on the lists as either someone who used it or possibly even the
person who created it might be reading.

> 
> Sincerely, 
>
> Joe. 
>

Hope this helps,
Phil

>
>
>
> > On May 6, 2016, at 1:35 PM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden
> email]> wrote: 
> > 
> > Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk
> rising above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea
> of computer languages is out of business. I think it is time for the
> Squeak balloon to be grounded to connect with the reality of why
> computer languages exist - to make things easy for application
> developers.  So I propose all Squeak developers stop "improving"
> Squeak for one year and spend the time writing useful applications in
> Squeak.  That could lead to a basket of new ideas for next year.
>  Maybe make this a regularly scheduled event - a half year for
> applications and a half year for Squeak? 
> > 
> > The reason motivating this suggestion is on the advice of a Squeak-
> Dev member, I downloaded the latest all in one and to my chagrin, I
> found an improvement that made Squeak as worthless as a balloon full
> of machine gun holes.    The Workspace window gets halos with a right
> mouse click on a standard 2 button laptop mouse.  So I'll return to
> an older Squeak for now.   
> > 
> > _______________________________________________ 
> > Beginners mailing list 
> > [hidden email] 
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> > 
> > 
> > If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the
> discussion below: 
> > http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792.html
> > To start a new topic under Squeak - Beginners, email [hidden
> email] 
> > To unsubscribe from Squeak - Beginners, click here. 
> > NAML
>
>

> View this message in context: Re: Machine gun the Balloon!
> Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
_______________________________________________
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[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners

Kirk,

I would be interested in looking at your balance tree algorithm.

Do you have some code that I can inspect?


Sincerely,

Joe.

> On May 7, 2016, at 12:42 AM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Newbies, I learned by examining a Dictionary until I understood how it works and that got me a job. I also got a little help from an old college chum after I started a Smalltalk special interest group of the Portland PC Club. Beyond that it was learning by doing, hiring an offshore consultant for a special project to make a database using a Balanced Tree algorithm (which oddly is not part of Squeak when that one data structure could replace most of the rest of them.  Then there was the occasional help by Squeak experts on various things like how to turn off preferences or where to find code to work with a camera. A big help has been focusing my attention on writing a new computer language in Smalltalk which requires lots of work that most programmers never do.  But I still can't count myself as an expert because I don't know lots of important things yet like how to use FFI or how to write an FF or how to make Squeak work on a Windows 98 computer which i have to use to run a CNC machine.
>
> Experts, my OP was mainly  to talk you into doing some real useful work on Squeak instead of aggrandizing yourselves on work that is not truly useful - you know replacing all the collections with a Balanced Tree might be nice or making sharp examples of Secure Sockets or FFI that people can use or get Squeak repaired so it can work on Win 98 or without Halos replacing menus or how to make most of the programs one might download from CNet but I guess it rings a bell with the real newbies that there isn't enough help anywhere.  To translate that, I as an intermediate programmer need to be taught how to be  senior programmer.  So we need better mentoring for everyone.
>
>
>
>
>

> On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 4:30 PM, Phil (list) <[hidden email]>wrote:

> Joe,
>
> On Fri, 2016-05-06 at 13:23 -0700, Joseph Alotta wrote:
> > I am a beginner with Squeak and the problem I am facing is not
> > knowing how to go about using the tools available.
>
> Having gone through this myself not too many years ago, yet before
> things really started to get crazy (in good and bad ways) in the Squeak
> world, I appreciate what you're saying.  Squeak and its dialects can
> seem pretty impenetrable until you learn 'the basics' which
> unfortunately are a bit of a moving target (esp. re: the tools and UI)
> depending on what you're trying to learn/do.
>
> >
> > There is a lot of language information, but not a “here’s what we do”
> > best practices for developers.  I don’t mean coding, but I mean, how
> > to find the resource I need.  How to build your project in pieces
> > that you can test, etc.  
>
> This is where things probably get pretty tough once you get beyond the
> absolute basics.  In its effort to get better, things are constantly
> being broken in ways that are often no big deal once you get over the
> hump and learn your way around.  However, they're changing enough to
> 'break' a lot of the existing tutorials and they're changing often
> enough that said tutorials don't seem to be getting updated to reflect
> the changes in later releases.  As if this weren't enough, there are
> factions with different views on overall direction which directly
> impacts things like best practices and is why we have different
> 'distros' ala Squeak/Pharo/Cuis/etc.
>
>
> > What I was looking for is an Apprentice kind of relationship, but
> > nobody seems interested or nearby.
> >
>
> That's probably going to be difficult as Smalltalk has a very small
> population of programmers vs. other languages.  So getting someone with
> experience to spend 1-on-1 time with is going to be difficult and/or
> expensive.  Your best bet to get started is to read the mailing lists
> (I would recommend this list, squeak-dev, and cuis as they are all good
> places to ask basic questions) and just ask when you get stuck.  There
> are a few good written works you can use as a starting point (you might
> want to check out something from http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) and
> there are several people who have put together some good intro material

> on YouTube (For example Lawson English <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist

> ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D and the late James Robertson https://www.youtu
> be.com/playlist?list=PL61A023880D3529DB have put together some basic
> stuff that should be helpful)
>
> Something I'd highly recommend: if you find a tutorial you like, find
> out what version of whatever dialect they based the tutorial on and try
> to use that *exact* version (or at least get as close as you can: if
> something was written with Squeak 3.x in mind, don't use Squeak 4.x to
> try to follow along etc.)  This will minimize the pain of trying to
> mentally map the tutorial to a different VM/image with even a slightly
> different feature set and UI.  When you're just getting started, that's
> not the time you want to be worried about using the bleeding edge VM or
> image.  If you can't figure out what version to use, post details and
> ask on the lists as either someone who used it or possibly even the
> person who created it might be reading.
>
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Joe.
> >
>
> Hope this helps,
> Phil
>
> >
> >
> >
> > > On May 6, 2016, at 1:35 PM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden
> > email]> wrote:
> > >
> > > Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk
> > rising above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea
> > of computer languages is out of business. I think it is time for the
> > Squeak balloon to be grounded to connect with the reality of why
> > computer languages exist - to make things easy for application
> > developers.  So I propose all Squeak developers stop "improving"
> > Squeak for one year and spend the time writing useful applications in
> > Squeak.  That could lead to a basket of new ideas for next year.
> >  Maybe make this a regularly scheduled event - a half year for
> > applications and a half year for Squeak?
> > >
> > > The reason motivating this suggestion is on the advice of a Squeak-
> > Dev member, I downloaded the latest all in one and to my chagrin, I
> > found an improvement that made Squeak as worthless as a balloon full
> > of machine gun holes.    The Workspace window gets halos with a right
> > mouse click on a standard 2 button laptop mouse.  So I'll return to
> > an older Squeak for now.  
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Beginners mailing list
> > > [hidden email]
> > > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> > >
> > >
> > > If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the
> > discussion below:
> > > http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792.html
> > > To start a new topic under Squeak - Beginners, email [hidden
> > email]
> > > To unsubscribe from Squeak - Beginners, click here.
> > > NAML
> >
> >
> > View this message in context: Re: Machine gun the Balloon!
> > Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Beginners mailing list

> > [hidden email]
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>
>
> If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:
> http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792p4893831.html
> To start a new topic under Squeak - Beginners, email [hidden email]
> To unsubscribe from Squeak - Beginners, click here.
> NAML

---

View this message in context: Re: Machine gun the Balloon!
Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners

On Fri, May 06, 2016 at 12:02:52PM -0700, Kirk Fraser wrote:
> Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk rising
> above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea of computer
> languages is out of business. I think it is time for the Squeak balloon to
> be grounded to connect with the reality of why computer languages exist -
> to make things easy for application developers.

I hope that you do not truly believe this, that Squeak should exist for the
benefit of application developers. What about the 99.99% of people on the
planet who are not application developers?

After all, it's not as if the application developers of the world aren't
already focusing enough attention on their own self-centered interests,
and it's not as though the world really needs yet another software
productivity tool.

To me that is what makes Squeak special. It is a tool for thinking and
learning, and it is accessible at people with all sorts of interests
and ideas. It is not just for programmers and application developers.

I certainly do not want to discourage anyone from writing useful
applications in Squeak, that would be great. It's just that to me, it
would be really discouraging if Squeak got turned into a "development
tool", and disappointing if people did not see its role as something
more than just another programming language.

Just my personal POV.

Dave

_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners