Journeyman
I didn't even notice, but I've been certified a Journeyman by Ken Causey on Squeak People! WOW! Thanks, man! It made my day. What a nice xmas gift to receive! I'll cut this short because I've got some squeaking to do! Smalltalk on!
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Saturday, December 18, 2004
I love testing
Well, I woke up bright and early this morning and decided to upgrade my Squeak image to the latest 3.8gamma. Well, I found that a lot of my projects do not work now. Crap. Well, I find out that one problem right away is mine and then within one hour I had my project migrated. I was shocked how fast I was able to find the problems and fix them. I didn't need a magic wand or anything, just all of the tests that I now write before I write code. A lot of the tests tested such small pieces that I was able to hone in on the problem quickly and fix it. No massive walk thoughs or cussing. It just re-iterated in my mind that the most important aspect of agile methodologies is test-first. Hell, it should be the most important aspect in any methodology! I was also thankful to keep my tests small. The only project that I have that has huge unit tests (more like acceptance tests) is my Java project and I plan to fix that shortly.
Well, I woke up bright and early this morning and decided to upgrade my Squeak image to the latest 3.8gamma. Well, I found that a lot of my projects do not work now. Crap. Well, I find out that one problem right away is mine and then within one hour I had my project migrated. I was shocked how fast I was able to find the problems and fix them. I didn't need a magic wand or anything, just all of the tests that I now write before I write code. A lot of the tests tested such small pieces that I was able to hone in on the problem quickly and fix it. No massive walk thoughs or cussing. It just re-iterated in my mind that the most important aspect of agile methodologies is test-first. Hell, it should be the most important aspect in any methodology! I was also thankful to keep my tests small. The only project that I have that has huge unit tests (more like acceptance tests) is my Java project and I plan to fix that shortly.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Smalltalk/X
OK, I've been playing around with Smalltalk/X lately and I'm quite impressed with how it has progressed in the past year. It's still a little rough around the edges (I got it to crash several times while trying to restart a method in the debugger) and a few things don't work like you think they might, but overall it's a good experience. I've been using the windows port and I get the feeling that the linux port probably kicks all booty. The code I've seen thus far has been very clean. I ported some of my xml code from Squeak to it and with a few minor tweaks, was up and running in no time! The really cool thing is that they have other languages as well. There's a java, prolog, and even a javascript interpreter. Very cool indeed. I'm still in the beginning stages so my VM crashs could well be a new beginnger clicking the wrong button. I'm excited. It should be a lot of fun exploring!
OK, I've been playing around with Smalltalk/X lately and I'm quite impressed with how it has progressed in the past year. It's still a little rough around the edges (I got it to crash several times while trying to restart a method in the debugger) and a few things don't work like you think they might, but overall it's a good experience. I've been using the windows port and I get the feeling that the linux port probably kicks all booty. The code I've seen thus far has been very clean. I ported some of my xml code from Squeak to it and with a few minor tweaks, was up and running in no time! The really cool thing is that they have other languages as well. There's a java, prolog, and even a javascript interpreter. Very cool indeed. I'm still in the beginning stages so my VM crashs could well be a new beginnger clicking the wrong button. I'm excited. It should be a lot of fun exploring!
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Monday, December 13, 2004
New Smalltalk Blogger
A great friend of mine just started his very own blog. Please welcome, Andres Valloud, to the world of Smalltalk bloggers. You can read his blog at: Ten is a good number. One of the things I love about Andres is that he speaks his mind and holds nothing back. If he doesn't like something, he says so. Enjoy!
A great friend of mine just started his very own blog. Please welcome, Andres Valloud, to the world of Smalltalk bloggers. You can read his blog at: Ten is a good number. One of the things I love about Andres is that he speaks his mind and holds nothing back. If he doesn't like something, he says so. Enjoy!
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Omaha Smalltalk User's Group
Guess what time of the month it is? Yes, it's time for the monthly Omaha, NE Smalltalk User's Group meeting! The FIT framework will again be up for discussion and anything else everyone wants to talk about. Last month, we talked about "The Genius Within", Refactoring Browser tool, Squeak, and a whole bunch more that I can't think of. I'm sure it will be fun and educational whatever we decide to discuss. Here's the details:
Tuesday, December 14, 7-9pm
Panera @ Eagle Run Shopping Center
13410 West Maple Road
Omaha, NE 68164
We generally meet in the seating in front of the official meeting room. We're still a small group. Just look for a long haired fellow who has a laptop and talks about this super cool language called Smalltalk!
See you all there!
Guess what time of the month it is? Yes, it's time for the monthly Omaha, NE Smalltalk User's Group meeting! The FIT framework will again be up for discussion and anything else everyone wants to talk about. Last month, we talked about "The Genius Within", Refactoring Browser tool, Squeak, and a whole bunch more that I can't think of. I'm sure it will be fun and educational whatever we decide to discuss. Here's the details:
Tuesday, December 14, 7-9pm
Panera @ Eagle Run Shopping Center
13410 West Maple Road
Omaha, NE 68164
We generally meet in the seating in front of the official meeting room. We're still a small group. Just look for a long haired fellow who has a laptop and talks about this super cool language called Smalltalk!
See you all there!
Crushed, Saddened, and In Denial
Anyone that knows me knows that I am huge fan of heavy metal music. They also know that I am a huge fan of Pantera and Damage Plan. Imagine my shock when I heard this morning when I found out that Dime had been shot to death! I thought it was some sort of sick and disgusting joke on the internet, but nope, it was true. His music meant a lot to me. From what I read, he was a caring and fun loving person. I just can't believe his been taken from us. A true metal warrior of the highest caliber and he's been ripped from us by a maniac. I also can't believe all of the injured and dead. I am just shocked. I wish I could pinch myself and this would all be a dream. My condolences go out to all of the families involved. I can't express my emotions and I was just a fan. Brothers in metal forever...
Anyone that knows me knows that I am huge fan of heavy metal music. They also know that I am a huge fan of Pantera and Damage Plan. Imagine my shock when I heard this morning when I found out that Dime had been shot to death! I thought it was some sort of sick and disgusting joke on the internet, but nope, it was true. His music meant a lot to me. From what I read, he was a caring and fun loving person. I just can't believe his been taken from us. A true metal warrior of the highest caliber and he's been ripped from us by a maniac. I also can't believe all of the injured and dead. I am just shocked. I wish I could pinch myself and this would all be a dream. My condolences go out to all of the families involved. I can't express my emotions and I was just a fan. Brothers in metal forever...
Saturday, December 04, 2004
This is what we've been talking about!
If you wonder why we Smalltakers, Lispers, Rubyers, Pythoners, Perlers, and other inhabitants of Dynamica are constantly raving about, then go watch this movie on Self. It brings home the point of what is possible in dynamic environments. The compile/run paradigm is just not needed and you can be so much more productive in lively environments. The movie does a great job of showcasing why simple is better and lively environments are the future. It was interesting to see the Morphic environment in use in Self. I know the version in Squeak was written by the same person, John Maloney. I also noticed a lot of the Etoys-type stuff in there as well. It's nice to see where inspirations are coming from. I would love to play with an instance-based Smalltalk system. How cool would that be? Anyway, the link has a bunch of movies that I hope to spend some time watching! OH BOY WHAT FUN! The movie reminds me that I need to go play with some Self. I download an x86 version a while back, but was to busy to play with it. Maybe now is the time to fire it up....=)
If you wonder why we Smalltakers, Lispers, Rubyers, Pythoners, Perlers, and other inhabitants of Dynamica are constantly raving about, then go watch this movie on Self. It brings home the point of what is possible in dynamic environments. The compile/run paradigm is just not needed and you can be so much more productive in lively environments. The movie does a great job of showcasing why simple is better and lively environments are the future. It was interesting to see the Morphic environment in use in Self. I know the version in Squeak was written by the same person, John Maloney. I also noticed a lot of the Etoys-type stuff in there as well. It's nice to see where inspirations are coming from. I would love to play with an instance-based Smalltalk system. How cool would that be? Anyway, the link has a bunch of movies that I hope to spend some time watching! OH BOY WHAT FUN! The movie reminds me that I need to go play with some Self. I download an x86 version a while back, but was to busy to play with it. Maybe now is the time to fire it up....=)
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