Want to help write runtime ...

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

For me it's quite simple: Smalltalk is how development should be done the sane and proper and productive way, period. 

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software.

During development at least, a Smalltalk must live in a runtime (some Smalltalks compile to native apps, after all). The JVM is a runtime, a rather capable and ubiquitous one at that. Therefore, Smalltalk must run on it, in order to do sane and proper and productive development on and for the JVM. QED.

Incidentally, I think Redline should consider Dolphin Smalltalk's clever adoption of MVP as a framework for UI development. I am enjoying MVP, anyway, having been around that block a few times too many, as well. We should *not* try too hard to map to AWT, Swing, FX or any of the existing UI frameworks; these should be pluggable at a primitive level. 

Sincerely,

Bob Calco

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 12:25 AM, jamesl <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Redliners,

The compiler is complete with all the things necessary to be a
Smalltalk.
Of course there may be a few bugs and edge cases to iron out.

What we are looking for are people who would like to help implement
the
underlying Smalltalk Runtime. Some of this is already there (look
under
src/smalltalk/st/redline)

If you are interested in helping then please contact this list, or if
you want
a more private conversation, object at redline_st

Rgs, James.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

Hi James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

I am something of a linguaphile, and have only met a few languages I was not excited to learn (Tcl comes to mind). I have on my machine I think every development language, platform and runtime invented in the last 30 years. Several of those are Smalltalks that I've recently 

I have had an itch to work on a compiler since I can remember, and as something of an autodidact (my college years were wasted on political philosophy) and a polyglot (I am fluent in Russian, and have studied Latin & Greek), I love to explore problems related to programming language development. There are so many these days to choose from, I get giddy/euphoric just contemplating the alternatives. However, at some point one must settle on something and run with it, or the itch never really gets scratched.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

Being something of a perfectionist with words, I could make a few improvements:

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or, as needs be, contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture is becoming as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software. In this view, a Smalltalk image is like an expendable lump of clay, which may or may not become the final work, and the final work is a work of beauty wrought with passion and skill, not merely a useful thing.

 

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

Well, it's just plain vanilla MVP. Perhaps the way Dolphin's V wraps the native Windoze API, the nuance between the P and the traditional C suddenly clicked for me, for some reason.  

It's a good question on which I'll introspect some more.

- Bob

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

 

I should get myself set up properly first. I'll fork from Github, and then what do you think is best?  I generally do my Java coding in IntelliJ, but I have the others (Eclipse, NetBeans) as well. I gather I'll have to set up with ANTLR, which version?

- Bob

Im writing a getting started right now which will help you - well - get started.
I use intellij and we have a Redline plugin for Eclipse, Intellij version is coming.

If you are *really* keen on compiler work we have a few tasks on the preprocessor
you could do?

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

I am something of a linguaphile, and have only met a few languages I was not excited to learn (Tcl comes to mind). I have on my machine I think every development language, platform and runtime invented in the last 30 years. Several of those are Smalltalks that I've recently 

I have had an itch to work on a compiler since I can remember, and as something of an autodidact (my college years were wasted on political philosophy) and a polyglot (I am fluent in Russian, and have studied Latin & Greek), I love to explore problems related to programming language development. There are so many these days to choose from, I get giddy/euphoric just contemplating the alternatives. However, at some point one must settle on something and run with it, or the itch never really gets scratched.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

Being something of a perfectionist with words, I could make a few improvements:

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or, as needs be, contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture is becoming as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software. In this view, a Smalltalk image is like an expendable lump of clay, which may or may not become the final work, and the final work is a work of beauty wrought with passion and skill, not merely a useful thing.

 

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

Well, it's just plain vanilla MVP. Perhaps the way Dolphin's V wraps the native Windoze API, the nuance between the P and the traditional C suddenly clicked for me, for some reason.  

It's a good question on which I'll introspect some more.

- Bob

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

 

I should get myself set up properly first. I'll fork from Github, and then what do you think is best?  I generally do my Java coding in IntelliJ, but I have the others (Eclipse, NetBeans) as well. I gather I'll have to set up with ANTLR, which version?

- Bob

James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Im writing a getting started right now which will help you - well - get started.
I use intellij and we have a Redline plugin for Eclipse, Intellij version is coming.

Great. I can help with the IntelliJ plugin as well. I would like to see the Redline plugin for Eclipse too.

 

If you are *really* keen on compiler work we have a few tasks on the preprocessor
you could do?

I'm happy to give it a go. I am on holiday now so now is the time for me to tackle the learning curve. :)

- Bob

 

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

I am something of a linguaphile, and have only met a few languages I was not excited to learn (Tcl comes to mind). I have on my machine I think every development language, platform and runtime invented in the last 30 years. Several of those are Smalltalks that I've recently 

I have had an itch to work on a compiler since I can remember, and as something of an autodidact (my college years were wasted on political philosophy) and a polyglot (I am fluent in Russian, and have studied Latin & Greek), I love to explore problems related to programming language development. There are so many these days to choose from, I get giddy/euphoric just contemplating the alternatives. However, at some point one must settle on something and run with it, or the itch never really gets scratched.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

Being something of a perfectionist with words, I could make a few improvements:

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or, as needs be, contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture is becoming as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software. In this view, a Smalltalk image is like an expendable lump of clay, which may or may not become the final work, and the final work is a work of beauty wrought with passion and skill, not merely a useful thing.

 

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

Well, it's just plain vanilla MVP. Perhaps the way Dolphin's V wraps the native Windoze API, the nuance between the P and the traditional C suddenly clicked for me, for some reason.  

It's a good question on which I'll introspect some more.

- Bob

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

 

I should get myself set up properly first. I'll fork from Github, and then what do you think is best?  I generally do my Java coding in IntelliJ, but I have the others (Eclipse, NetBeans) as well. I gather I'll have to set up with ANTLR, which version?

- Bob

James,

OK, I'll check the eclipse plugin project out later. The IntelliJ guys are without a doubt the right folks to tackle that plugin. :)

Looking forward to the getting started guide.

- Bob

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:48 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

The Eclipse Plugin is in the github repo. The doco on setting it up is sparse but there.

The guys at IntelliJ said they would write a plugin for Redline when the compiler was
complete. It is, so now I need to contact them to get the plug-in going.

Rgs, James.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Im writing a getting started right now which will help you - well - get started.
I use intellij and we have a Redline plugin for Eclipse, Intellij version is coming.

Great. I can help with the IntelliJ plugin as well. I would like to see the Redline plugin for Eclipse too.

 

If you are *really* keen on compiler work we have a few tasks on the preprocessor
you could do?

I'm happy to give it a go. I am on holiday now so now is the time for me to tackle the learning curve. :)

- Bob

 

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

I am something of a linguaphile, and have only met a few languages I was not excited to learn (Tcl comes to mind). I have on my machine I think every development language, platform and runtime invented in the last 30 years. Several of those are Smalltalks that I've recently 

I have had an itch to work on a compiler since I can remember, and as something of an autodidact (my college years were wasted on political philosophy) and a polyglot (I am fluent in Russian, and have studied Latin & Greek), I love to explore problems related to programming language development. There are so many these days to choose from, I get giddy/euphoric just contemplating the alternatives. However, at some point one must settle on something and run with it, or the itch never really gets scratched.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

Being something of a perfectionist with words, I could make a few improvements:

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or, as needs be, contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture is becoming as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software. In this view, a Smalltalk image is like an expendable lump of clay, which may or may not become the final work, and the final work is a work of beauty wrought with passion and skill, not merely a useful thing.

 

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

Well, it's just plain vanilla MVP. Perhaps the way Dolphin's V wraps the native Windoze API, the nuance between the P and the traditional C suddenly clicked for me, for some reason.  

It's a good question on which I'll introspect some more.

- Bob

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

 

I should get myself set up properly first. I'll fork from Github, and then what do you think is best?  I generally do my Java coding in IntelliJ, but I have the others (Eclipse, NetBeans) as well. I gather I'll have to set up with ANTLR, which version?

- Bob

Looks good. I have to update my Maven, which was 'latest and greatest' I think back when Caligula was emperor. Otherwise I'm all set.

Any pointers on setting up in IntelliJ for debugging. I'd like to run those commands and step through what's happening for maximum comprehension.

- Bob

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 11:03 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Here is a draft - what do you think?



1 Getting Started

Follow these instructions to get Redline Smalltalk started with a clean build from source code, and a
running Smalltalk Hello World example. First you will need to get some of the dependencies for Redline sorted
out, these include:

JDK - To compile Redline Smalltalks Java source code. Get it here.
Apache Maven - To handle the building, dependencies, testing and packagin for the Redline Smalltalk Java source code. Get it here.
Git - To fetch the source code for Redline Smalltalk.

When you can do the following commands from your command prompt and get the associated results your environment is ready
for Redline Smalltalk. Note: '>' represents the prompt on your command line / shell.

```
> javac -version
javac 1.6.0_24

> mvn -v
Apache Maven 3.0.3 (r1075438; 2011-03-01 04:31:09+1100)

> git --version
git version 1.7.5.4
```

*Note: Java versions 1.5 or greater and Maven version 3.0 or greater is ok.

1.2 Building Redline Smalltalk from source.

1.3 The Source Code

You will need to get the Redline Smalltalk source code checked out from the GitHub repository into a folder where you
want to build Redline Smalltalk. Git will check out the source into a subfolder so the folder you should make and
cd (change directory) into should be a level above. For example, I put my projects in a 'dev' folder so I would be in
that folder when I get the source code. To get the source code execute the following command:

```
git clone https://github.com/redline-smalltalk/redline-smalltalk
```

1.4 Compiling the Source Code

To compile the Redline Smalltalk source code you need to be in the 'redline-smalltalk' folder and execute the following
command:

```
mvn clean install
```

The first time you issue this command Apache Maven will go out to the internet and fetch a lot of dependencies, and this
may take a lot of time. This happens only the first time, and subsequent runs will be much quicker. When Maven has
completed you should see the following output:

```
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 6.383s
```

This process has built and Redline Smalltalk Java Archive and run a few tests against it. All of the build outputs we care
about are in the 'target/redline-deploy' sub-folder.

1.5 Executing Hello World

Redline Smalltalk comes with a few examples and one such example is a simple 'Hello World' script that displays a message
on your screen. Note that this is 'Hello World' example is a Smalltalk script and not a class, as Redline Smalltalk can be used
for simple scripts as well as full applications. Of course there are example classes as well. To execute the example you need
to follow these steps from your command prompt from within the 'redline-deploy' sub-folder:

Note: '>' represents the prompt on your command line / shell.

```
>export REDLINE_HOME=`cd "$REDLINE_HOME" > /dev/null && pwd`
>./stic -s examples st.redline.HelloWorld
```

You should see the following message from Redline Smalltalk:

```
hello world - from Redline Smalltalk.
```

You can see the script for the Hello World example under the 'examples' sub-folder. By convention Redline and Java keep source
files in sub-folders that correspond to the namespace of the class or script. So HelloWorld.st can be found in the sub-folder
'st/redline'.  Please take a moment to look at the contents of this file.

This process has got the latest Redline Smalltalk source code, built it and ran a Smalltalk example. You may want to put the
resulting Redline Smalltalk code elsewhere on your system. If you do want to do this then copy the entire redline-deploy folder to
that location and be sure to set and export the REDLINE_HOME environment variable to that location.

You are now ready to work with Redline.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

James,

OK, I'll check the eclipse plugin project out later. The IntelliJ guys are without a doubt the right folks to tackle that plugin. :)

Looking forward to the getting started guide.

- Bob

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:48 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

The Eclipse Plugin is in the github repo. The doco on setting it up is sparse but there.

The guys at IntelliJ said they would write a plugin for Redline when the compiler was
complete. It is, so now I need to contact them to get the plug-in going.

Rgs, James.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Im writing a getting started right now which will help you - well - get started.
I use intellij and we have a Redline plugin for Eclipse, Intellij version is coming.

Great. I can help with the IntelliJ plugin as well. I would like to see the Redline plugin for Eclipse too.

 

If you are *really* keen on compiler work we have a few tasks on the preprocessor
you could do?

I'm happy to give it a go. I am on holiday now so now is the time for me to tackle the learning curve. :)

- Bob

 

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi James,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM, James Ladd <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your interest - I have responded inline below.

Rgs,James.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Robert Calco <[hidden email]> wrote:

I'm interested to help with this. I have recently been smitten by Smalltalk, having lots of experience with Java, .NET, Ruby and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

Really excited you want to help. Experience with other languages and frameworks will help make Redline Smalltalk better.

I am something of a linguaphile, and have only met a few languages I was not excited to learn (Tcl comes to mind). I have on my machine I think every development language, platform and runtime invented in the last 30 years. Several of those are Smalltalks that I've recently 

I have had an itch to work on a compiler since I can remember, and as something of an autodidact (my college years were wasted on political philosophy) and a polyglot (I am fluent in Russian, and have studied Latin & Greek), I love to explore problems related to programming language development. There are so many these days to choose from, I get giddy/euphoric just contemplating the alternatives. However, at some point one must settle on something and run with it, or the itch never really gets scratched.

 

The development runtime and paradigm of Smalltalk is what I think really separates it from the rest of the pack, and I would love to learn how to implement a serious Smalltalk by jumping into one that is already on its way to being done. So, this is a perfect opportunity for me to both contribute and learn.

 

I suppose everyone who aspires to contribute to this project should be able to answer 'Why Smalltalk on the JVM?' 

Not really, just a passion / drive to contribute and an understanding that we want something great and productive.
We are working on a good piece that answers Why Smalltalk and Why on the JVM so I wont address that here.
Although I really like your reason below - you write well.

Being something of a perfectionist with words, I could make a few improvements:

For me at least: Thinking 'in the present' with an expandable (or, as needs be, contractable) ecosystem of living, malleable objects, where a test framework, debugger and compiler work together with you to help you mould, chisel out and sand off the rough edges, allowing you to see what your digital sculpture is becoming as it evolves, turns the chore of writing code into the art of crafting software. In this view, a Smalltalk image is like an expendable lump of clay, which may or may not become the final work, and the final work is a work of beauty wrought with passion and skill, not merely a useful thing.

 

We are interested in hearing of any new way to improve the development experience.

What makes Dolphins MVP clever?

Well, it's just plain vanilla MVP. Perhaps the way Dolphin's V wraps the native Windoze API, the nuance between the P and the traditional C suddenly clicked for me, for some reason.  

It's a good question on which I'll introspect some more.

- Bob

So would you like to adopt a class and get started?

 

I should get myself set up properly first. I'll fork from Github, and then what do you think is best?  I generally do my Java coding in IntelliJ, but I have the others (Eclipse, NetBeans) as well. I gather I'll have to set up with ANTLR, which version?

- Bob

I have some more questions about what you mean/expect by "adopt a
BlueBook class". I assume we want unit tests for pretty much
everything we write in Smalltalk. I see that there's already quite a
lot of Smalltalk there already, but not really much in the way of
tests. Should I consider all the existing Smalltalk to be
"preliminary"? And therefore every class needs (1) review, (2)
completion, (3) tests? Please elaborate about what you'd like to see.

Thanks,

Lee

On Dec 14, 4:25 pm, jamesl <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hi Redliners,
>
> The compiler is complete with all the things necessary to be a
> Smalltalk.
> Of course there may be a few bugs and edge cases to iron out.
>
> What we are looking for are people who would like to help implement
> the
> underlying Smalltalk Runtime. Some of this is already there (look
> under
> src/smalltalk/st/redline)
>
> If you are interested in helping then please contact this list, or if
> you want
> a more private conversation, object at redline_st
>
> Rgs, James.

James, I'm a student who has done a ton of Ruby and suffered through plenty of university mandated Java. My only experience with Smalltalk is a comprehensive read of Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns. I've wanted to learn Smalltalk since reading SBPP, seems like implementing one is a good way to accomplish that. :)

If can I be of any utility, please let me know. I'd also like to know your recommendations for learning Smalltalk.

On 12/14/11 4:25 PM, jamesl wrote:

Hi Redliners,

The compiler is complete with all the things necessary to be a
Smalltalk.
Of course there may be a few bugs and edge cases to iron out.

What we are looking for are people who would like to help implement
the
underlying Smalltalk Runtime. Some of this is already there (look
under
src/smalltalk/st/redline)

If you are interested in helping then please contact this list, or if
you want
a more private conversation, object at redline_st

Rgs, James.

--
Steven! Ragnarök
T <a href="tel:408%20256%200278" value="+14082560278" target="_blank">408 256 0278
[hidden email]
http://nuclearsandwich.com

I found Pharo by example to be an excellent to Smalltak.

http://www.pharo-project.org/documentation/tutorials-books

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 17, 2011, at 4:21 AM, "Steven! Ragnarök" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On 12/17/11 1:02 AM, James Ladd wrote:
>> Your help would be appreciated. We are working on a list of classes to
>> adopt and port, as
>> well as adding a unit test for each method.
>>
>> To get started try these instructions:
>
> Thanks James, I got everything up and running and forked myself a copy to work in. I was more looking for an introduction to Smalltalk the language.. I'm a total n00b. :)
>>
>>
>>
>> *1 Getting Started*
>>
>> Follow these instructions to get Redline Smalltalk started with a clean
>> build from source code, and a
>> running Smalltalk Hello World example. First you will need to get some
>> of the dependencies for Redline sorted
>> out, these include:
>>
>> JDK - To compile Redline Smalltalks Java source code. Get it here
>> <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-7u2-download-1377129.html>.
>> Apache Maven - To handle the building, dependencies, testing and
>> packagin for the Redline Smalltalk Java source code. Get it here
>> <http://maven.apache.org/download.html>.
>> Git - To fetch the source code for Redline Smalltalk.
>>
>> When you can do the following commands from your command prompt and get
>> the associated results your environment is ready
>> for Redline Smalltalk. Note: '>' represents the prompt on your command
>> line / shell.
>>
>> ```
>>> javac -version
>> javac 1.6.0_24
>>
>>> mvn -v
>> Apache Maven 3.0.3 (r1075438; 2011-03-01 04:31:09+1100)
>>
>>> git --version
>> git version 1.7.5.4
>> ```
>>
>> *Note: Java versions 1.5 or greater and Maven version 3.0 or greater is ok.
>>
>> *1.2 Building Redline Smalltalk from source.*
>>
>> *1.3 The Source Code*
>>
>> You will need to get the Redline Smalltalk source code checked out from
>> the GitHub repository into a folder where you
>> want to build Redline Smalltalk. Git will check out the source into a
>> subfolder so the folder you should make and
>> cd (change directory) into should be a level above. For example, I put
>> my projects in a 'dev' folder so I would be in
>> that folder when I get the source code. To get the source code execute
>> the following command:
>>
>> ```
>> git clone https://github.com/redline-smalltalk/redline-smalltalk
>> ```
>>
>> *1.4 Compiling the Source Code*
>>
>> To compile the Redline Smalltalk source code you need to be in the
>> 'redline-smalltalk' folder and execute the following
>> command:
>>
>> ```
>> mvn clean install
>> ```
>>
>> The first time you issue this command Apache Maven will go out to the
>> internet and fetch a lot of dependencies, and this
>> may take a lot of time. This happens only the first time, and subsequent
>> runs will be much quicker. When Maven has
>> completed you should see the following output:
>>
>> ```
>> [INFO]
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> [INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
>> [INFO]
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> [INFO] Total time: 6.383s
>> ```
>>
>> This process has built and Redline Smalltalk Java Archive and run a few
>> tests against it. All of the build outputs we care
>> about are in the 'target/redline-deploy' sub-folder.
>>
>> *1.5 Executing Hello World*
>>
>> Redline Smalltalk comes with a few examples and one such example is a
>> simple 'Hello World' script that displays a message
>> on your screen. Note that this is 'Hello World' example is a Smalltalk
>> script and not a class, as Redline Smalltalk can be used
>> for simple scripts as well as full applications. Of course there are
>> example classes as well. To execute the example you need
>> to follow these steps from your command prompt from within the
>> 'redline-deploy' sub-folder:
>>
>> Note: '>' represents the prompt on your command line / shell.
>>
>> ```
>>> export REDLINE_HOME=`cd "$REDLINE_HOME" > /dev/null && pwd`
>>> ./stic -s examples st.redline.HelloWorld
>> ```
>>
>> You should see the following message from Redline Smalltalk:
>>
>> ```
>> hello world - from Redline Smalltalk.
>> ```
>>
>> You can see the script for the Hello World example under the 'examples'
>> sub-folder. By convention Redline and Java keep source
>> files in sub-folders that correspond to the namespace of the class or
>> script. So HelloWorld.st can be found in the sub-folder
>> 'st/redline'.  Please take a moment to look at the contents of this file.
>>
>> This process has got the latest Redline Smalltalk source code, built it
>> and ran a Smalltalk example. You may want to put the
>> resulting Redline Smalltalk code elsewhere on your system. If you do
>> want to do this then copy the entire redline-deploy folder to
>> that location and be sure to set and export the REDLINE_HOME environment
>> variable to that location.
>>
>> You are now ready to work with Redline.
>>
>> *end*
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 7:37 PM, "Steven! Ragnarök"
>> <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>>
>>    James, I'm a student who has done a ton of Ruby and suffered through
>>    plenty of university mandated Java. My only experience with
>>    Smalltalk is a comprehensive read of Smalltalk Best Practice
>>    Patterns. I've wanted to learn Smalltalk since reading SBPP, seems
>>    like implementing one is a good way to accomplish that. :)
>>
>>    If can I be of any utility, please let me know. I'd also like to
>>    know your recommendations for learning Smalltalk.
>>
>>
>>    On 12/14/11 4:25 PM, jamesl wrote:
>>
>>        Hi Redliners,
>>
>>        The compiler is complete with all the things necessary to be a
>>        Smalltalk.
>>        Of course there may be a few bugs and edge cases to iron out.
>>
>>        What we are looking for are people who would like to help implement
>>        the
>>        underlying Smalltalk Runtime. Some of this is already there (look
>>        under
>>        src/smalltalk/st/redline)
>>
>>        If you are interested in helping then please contact this list,
>>        or if
>>        you want
>>        a more private conversation, object at redline_st
>>
>>        Rgs, James.
>>
>>
>>
>>    --
>>    Steven! Ragnarök
>>    T <a href="tel:408%20256%200278" value="+14082560278">408 256 0278 <tel:408%20256%200278>
>>    [hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>
>>    http://nuclearsandwich.com
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Steven! Ragnarök
> T <a href="tel:408%20256%200278" value="+14082560278">408 256 0278
> [hidden email]
> http://nuclearsandwich.com