need help loading third-party packages

Hi--another question, this time on loading an external package into Pharo.

I want to do some work manipulating text, so I thought I would start by reading the source code for an existing package that works on text.

Here's what I did:

On smalltalkhub.com, I found a package called Citezen, from team RMoD, and downloaded the .mcz file. There were many versions, so I downloaded the one with the latest timestamp. It helped that its name was Citezen-All-sd20.mcz.

I've tried adding this to my current Pharo 6.1 image in two ways: 1) by dropping the .mcz file onto the window of PharoLauncher, and 2) moving the file into my computer's package-cache directory. I had roughly the same problems with both.

Problem 1: There were multiple options for telling the system what do to with it: Load, Load Version, Merge version, Open version, and Extract all to....

Problem 2: Once I do that, I get to a window with buttons at the top: Browse, History, Changes, Load, Merge, Adopt, Copy, Diff.

Problem 3: Once I chose one of these, I got at least a half-dozen "Can't find dependency <filename> Ignore?" messages (for example "...Citezen-Parsers-cdlm.13" and "...Citezen-Tests-sd.39"). The default button for this was "Yes", so I chose this.

This started some downloading of files, a process that sometimes got "stuck" and never completed.

Not knowing any better, I then launched Pharo 6.1 (Stable). I could see no indication that Citezen had been "added" to the system.

Anyway, in a system browser, I searched for the string "Citezen" and found five Citezen packages: All, Model, PArsers, Rendering, and Tests. But when I selected any of them, no content appeared in the Class pane. Also searching for a class containing "Cite" found nothing.

Surely, other beginners have had the same problem as me. I would appreciate pointers to any existing resources that would help me out, or whatever help you'd care to give me.

TO RECAP, I want to load third-party packages and read their source code. What's the best way to do this?

Many thanks!

--

Gregg Williams wrote
> I want to load third-party packages and read their source code. What's the
> best way to do

In general, the best way is via Metacello, Pharo's dependency manager. This
will automatically load the required packages, avoiding the errors you
encountered. Metacello provides BaselineOfAbc and ConfigurationOfXyz
classes, and can be accessed a few ways:

1. A simple way for beginners and exploration is, as mentioned, the Catalog,
which is a UI for ConfigurationOfXyz classes in known remote repos.

2. For programmatic loading, the preferred method is the Metacello Scripting
API, IOW a script like this:
```
Metacello new
  baseline: 'Calypso';
  repository: 'github://dionisiydk/Calypso';
  load
```

3. For completion, one can also send messages directly to BaselineOfAbc and
ConfigurationOfXyz classes, but this is low level and usually not required.



-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html