[squeak-dev] Re: How to get a list of all plugins in VM (Andreas Raab)

> Ross Boylan wrote:
> > I'm trying to figure out if I'm setup so I can use some of the font
> > packages.  I'm running a 3.10 image (but 3.9 VM) on Linux (Debian
> > Lenny).
> >
> > How do I get a list of all plugins?
>
> You don't. External, unloaded plugins can't be enumerated since they are
> just platform shared libraries (DLLs). They could be found anywhere in
> your search path which makes it very difficult to list them explicitly.

>   13.  Re: How to get a list of all plugins in VM (Andreas Raab)
> Message: 13
> Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:55:29 -0700
> From: Andreas Raab <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [squeak-dev] Re: How to get a list of all plugins in VM
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> <[hidden email]>
> Cc: [hidden email]
> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Ross Boylan wrote:
> > I'm trying to figure out if I'm setup so I can use some of the font
> > packages.  I'm running a 3.10 image (but 3.9 VM) on Linux (Debian
> > Lenny).
> >
> > How do I get a list of all plugins?
>
> You don't. External, unloaded plugins can't be enumerated since they are
> just platform shared libraries (DLLs). They could be found anywhere in
> your search path which makes it very difficult to list them explicitly.
>
> The right way to solve your problem is to provide an entry point in your
> plugin that can be used to detect whether the plugin is available. A
> useful thing to do here is to provide a primitiveVersion because later
> on you'll be able to use that to detect whether the user has an outdated
> plugin version. Then you can simply implement something like:
>
> MyClass>>pluginVersion
> "Returns the plugin version, or nil if the plugin cannot be loaded"
> <primitive: 'primitiveVersion' module: 'MyPlugin'>
> ^nil "indicates failure"
>
> MyClass>>isPluginPresent
> "Returns true if the plugin is present"
> ^self pluginVersion notNil
>
> MyClass>>isPluginOfTheRightVersion
> "Returns true if the plugin is of the right version"
> ^(self pluginVersion ifNil:[0]) > self minimumVersion
>
> Cheers,
>    - Andreas
>
>
> ------------------------------

> Hello Andreas,
>
> Long time, no see but I still follow Squeak and my Squeak Help on my site. See
>
> http://www.maartensz.org/computing/computingFrame.htm
>
> which I wrote for Squeak 3.7 is still used daily on my site by quite a few
> visitors, so apparently it still satisfies a need.
>
> My main reason to keep following Squeak is interest (it looks a lot better now
> than a few years ago) in HLL, Smalltalk and Morphic, but my own main interest in
> computing and programming these days is mostly in assembly.
>
> And this caused my answering this thread, though it doesn't answer Ross Boylan's
> question for Linux, which I don't run.
>
> You wrote, in reply to him:
>
>> Ross Boylan wrote:
>> > I'm trying to figure out if I'm setup so I can use some of the font
>> > packages.  I'm running a 3.10 image (but 3.9 VM) on Linux (Debian
>> > Lenny).
>> >
>> > How do I get a list of all plugins?
>>
>> You don't. External, unloaded plugins can't be enumerated since they are
>> just platform shared libraries (DLLs). They could be found anywhere in
>> your search path which makes it very difficult to list them explicitly.
>
> On Windows, though, there are nifty great and small assembly-related programs
> that answer many queries, also about what is really there in Squeak.exe, all
> laid out neatly.
>
> A great one for this (also in size and capacities) is OllyDbg, by Oleg Yushuck;
> a small one (idem) is PEView by Wayne Radburn. Both are at various places on the
> internet, and easily found with Google.
>
> The last one is most convenient here. The one I used  is 0.9.8.0 that takes -
> unzipped - all of 67 Kb (it's programmed in assembly, you see, and there is no
> image at all...) which neatly shows in its SECTION.edata (e.g. EXPORT Address
> Table) which primitives are in the executable. Likewise, its SECTION.idata
> displays the loaded DLLs.
>
> To find this and much more, all one needs is PEView and opening Squeak.exe in
> it, which then lists it quite neatly. If one knows some C or Assembly this is
> all
> quite revealing and interesting, and one item to be found thus at various places
> is e.g. "Andreas Raab", at least in the version of Squeak.exe I inspected this
> way.
>
> In any case... some questions about Squeak.exe can definitely be answered quite
> easily and fastly on Windows using PEView.
>

> Regards,
>
> Maarten.
>
>
>>   13.  Re: How to get a list of all plugins in VM (Andreas Raab)
>> Message: 13
>> Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:55:29 -0700
>> From: Andreas Raab <[hidden email]>
>> Subject: [squeak-dev] Re: How to get a list of all plugins in VM
>> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
>> <[hidden email]>
>> Cc: [hidden email]
>> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>> Ross Boylan wrote:
>> > I'm trying to figure out if I'm setup so I can use some of the font
>> > packages.  I'm running a 3.10 image (but 3.9 VM) on Linux (Debian
>> > Lenny).
>> >
>> > How do I get a list of all plugins?
>>
>> You don't. External, unloaded plugins can't be enumerated since they are
>> just platform shared libraries (DLLs). They could be found anywhere in
>> your search path which makes it very difficult to list them explicitly.
>>
>> The right way to solve your problem is to provide an entry point in your
>> plugin that can be used to detect whether the plugin is available. A
>> useful thing to do here is to provide a primitiveVersion because later
>> on you'll be able to use that to detect whether the user has an outdated
>> plugin version. Then you can simply implement something like:
>>
>> MyClass>>pluginVersion
>> "Returns the plugin version, or nil if the plugin cannot be loaded"
>> <primitive: 'primitiveVersion' module: 'MyPlugin'>
>> ^nil "indicates failure"
>>
>> MyClass>>isPluginPresent
>> "Returns true if the plugin is present"
>> ^self pluginVersion notNil
>>
>> MyClass>>isPluginOfTheRightVersion
>> "Returns true if the plugin is of the right version"
>> ^(self pluginVersion ifNil:[0]) > self minimumVersion
>>
>> Cheers,
>>    - Andreas
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>
>
>
>