VA Smalltalk Update - John O'Keefe

Copyright © 2011, Instantiations, Inc.

VA Smalltalk Update

John O’Keefe

Principal Smalltalk Architect

Instantiations, Inc.


But first, the rebirth of Instantiations

• Instantiations’ roots are in Smalltalk development tools

• We licensed Smalltalk technology from IBM and grew

• The Smalltalk tools were very good, so we redid them for Java and grew

• and redid them again for Eclipse and grew more

• Google liked the Java tools, so they bought that part of Instantiations

• and Instantiations took the money and went back to its roots

• Instantiations is now positioned to successfully respond to customer requests for a 21st Century VA Smalltalk

• VA Smalltalk...Onward and Upward!


Recent Events

• Growing Engineering staff

• Added Donald MacQueen, Principal Smalltalk Engineer

• Looking for more

• University out-reach

• Hasso Plattner Institute Bachelor Project

• Interested in more

• User out-reach

• Conference participation

• VA Smalltalk Forum -> VA Smalltalk Google Group• Will be aggregated on http://forum.world.st

• Existing forum content still available (static)


Previous Releases

• V8.0 (May 2009)• Seaside, Tabbed Browsers, Documentation delivery system

• V8.0.1 (November 2009)• Seaside update, ‘cdecl’ calling convention

• V8.0.2 (May 2010)• Seaside update, GLORP


VA Smalltalk V8.0.3February 2011

• Web interface

• Seaside support updated to V3.0.2

• Improved WSDL schema import diagnostic



• Web interface



• Graphical User Interface

• CwMultiLineTextPrompter


CwTextPrompter

• Scrollable, not sizeable


CwMultiLineTextPrompter

• Sizeable, scrollable



• Web interface



• Graphical User Interface

• CwMultiLineTextPrompter

• Development Tools

• NLS Application Enabler Tool

• NLS Catalog (.CAT) Editor

• Browser performance improvements


NLS Application Enabler Tool


NLS Catalog (.CAT) Editor



• Platform Interface

• TzSpecificLocalTimeToSystemTime PlatformFunction on Windows

• Windows .EXE and .DLL files have function-specific descriptions

• Improved error diagnostics for memory allocation errors• written to log file

• VM Interfaces

• New APIs for string conversion• EsIsString

• EsStringToCString

• EsCStringToString



• Platforms

• Ubuntu 10.10

• Fedora Core 14

• Documentation

• New online documentation• VA Assist

• Widget/Kit Controls

• GF/ST

• Support

• 40+ bug fixes


Looking to the Future


Future Releases

• Release schedule is about twice a year

• Next release is planned for August 2011

• Current information available in Product Roadmap• http://www.instantiations.com/products/roadmap.html

• Content based on requirements from:

• Direct customer interactions

• Forums

• Support cases

• Internals


Priority Technologies

• Internationalization

• Web interface

• Middleware

• GUI Look and Feel


• Security

• Performance and Scalability

• Platforms

• External Interfaces

• Other


Next Release Planned ContentMajor Items


• Uniform UTF-8 input/output

• Web interface

• Seaside 3.x

• Continuation support

• GUI Look and Feel

• Additional Windows Common Controls• Specific controls TBD (Rebar, Calendar, Task Dialog, etc.)

• Supported at CW, ABT and WB level


Next Release Planned ContentMajor Items


• Improved Changes Browser & Merge Tool

• Code Assist (auto-complete)

• New ‘Settings’ framework

• Other

• Infrastructure• Deprecation exception support

• Logging framework

• Installation• Single installer for Client and Manager

• Seamless with Windows UAC (User Account Control)


Next Release Planned ContentOther Items

• Web interface• HTTP chunked transfer encoding

• GUI Look and Feel• TIFF 4

• Middleware• Improved DB2 Stored Procedures

• GLORP improvements

• Security• “Basic” security framework (consolidate existing OpenSSL wrappers)

• External Interfaces• JNIPort


Next Release Planned ContentRemoved Items

• Platforms

• Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2000 (all versions)• Microsoft support ended July, 2010

• Support in V8.0.3 and earlier continues on best-can-do basis


Future ReleasesCandidate Items


• Full Unicode/UTF-8 (including VM)

• Web interface

• Seaside 3.x

• SST Servlet multipart forms

• Web services tooling improvements

• Web services debugging tools/doc

• Validating XML parser



• GUI Look and Feel• GTK+ 2.x on Linux• Additional Windows Common Controls• Additional icon/image support• Backport widgets from add-ons

• Development Tools• Monticello importer• New ‘Settings’ dialog• Consolidate all settings using new ‘Settings’ framework

• Middleware• GLORP infrastructure improvements• GLORP Programmer’s Reference• Active Records built on GLORP• TCP/IP V6



• Security• “Full” security framework -- OpenSSL 1.0 wrappers

• Performance and Scalability• Incremental garbage collection

• 64-bit Smalltalk

• Class library performance hotspots

• Integrate KES/Stats tool

• Platform• Windows Services control moved to Smalltalk

• External Interfaces• .NET/C#


Future Releases Candidate Items

• Other

• Installation• Install/Repair/Uninstall

• Class Libraries

• Collection hashing policies

• Collection sorting policies


How Do You Get VA Smalltalk?

• Download evaluation copy• http://www.instantiations.com/products/vasmalltalk/download.html

• Buy development licenses• http://www.instantiations.com/products/purchase.html


How Do You Get VA Smalltalk?

• Download evaluation copy

• Buy development licenses

• Download development build


Development Builds

• Started as an experiment in

• Early delivery

• Continuous integration

• Availability

• Announced on VA Smalltalk Forum and comp.lang.smalltalk

• Download from VA Smalltalk website

• Irregular schedule

• Documentation updated to match build

• Windows and Linux only

• Fix-list for build on VA Smalltalk forum


How Do I Get VA Smalltalk?




• Be a committer on an Open Source project


Open Source Project Committer

• Instantiations will donate a perpetual VA Smalltalk license

• to committers

• working on non-commercial open source project

• Hint: release something to VAStGoodies.com

• No charge

• Details• http://www.instantiations.com/company/open-source.html


How Do I Get VA Smalltalk?




• Be a committer on an Open Source project

• Be an educational institution


Academic Licenses

• Accredited educational institutions

• Teaching staff

• Students

• No charge

• Details• http://www.instantiations.com/products/academic-license-

program.html


Contact us

• General information

• [email protected]

• Sales


• Support


• Me


VA Smalltalk Update - John O'Keefe

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