CORMAS - open sourced

The CORMAS modelling platform is now open-source and available under the MIT licence.

CORMAS (Common-pool Resources and Multiagent Systems; Bousquet et al., 1998) has originally been developed by CIRAD green team to provide a multi-agent framework that can be used to simulate the interactions between a group of agents and a shared environment holding natural resources. It is written in Smalltalk (originally in VW).

...read more

Smalltalk Reflections #006: Debugging

In this episode, David and Craig talk about debugging in Smalltalk. The debugger is an essential tool and Smalltalkers use it for more than just finding and fixing bugs.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/smalltalkreflections/SmalltalkReflections_006.mp3

The video on debugging mentioned in this episode can be found here

You can leave comments on our blog at http://smalltalkreflections.blogspot.ca, leave us a review on iTunes or email us at smalltalkreflections@thiscontext.com. You can tweet us at @buckdk or @ccrraaiigg.

[ANN] Moose 5.0

We are happy to announce Moose 5.0:

http://moosetechnology.org/#install

Description

This is by far the most extensive Moose release to date. Just take a look at these two trailers:

• Spotter: https://vimeo.com/113832673
• Inspector: https://vimeo.com/103463364

The key highlights are:

• It is based on Pharo 3.0.
• Roassal2 is a complete reimplementation of the core visual engine of Moose.
• Roassal2 replaced Roassal, EyeSee and Graph-ET, and it features many new things including smooth animations, new composeable builders and several new layouts.
• All built-in Moose visualizations use Roassal2.
• Glamour has been extended with a Pager browser and with Rubric as the main text editor.
• GTSpotter is a new tool that makes it possible to find objects fast.
• GTInspector saw major usability improvements based on the Pager browser, and it now comes with many object specific extensions.
• GTPlayground provides a new way to handle scripts and when combined with GTInspector, it can replace the dedicated easels and editors.
• Moose Finder has been extended with the ability of handling in place visualizations.
• GTDebugger has been strengthen and was made more robust.
• PetitParser has been extended with the notion of context which enables elegant island parsing.

A list of issues addressed in this release can be found here

Installation

The Moose Suite 5.0 comes for each platform as a separate bundle:

• Moose Suite 5.0 for Mac
• Moose Suite 5.0 for Windows
• Moose Suite 5.0 for Linux

The Moose Suite 5.0 can also be loaded in a Pharo 3.0 image either from the Configuration Browser, or by executing the following script:

Gofer new
      smalltalkhubUser: 'Moose' project: 'Moose';
      configuration;
      loadStable

Smalltalk Reflections Podcast

Smalltalk Reflections is a weekly podcast discussing the Smalltalk programming language:

http://smalltalkreflections.blogspot.ca

Already 3 episodes online!

New Smalltalk book: Programming Smalltalk

A new book about Smalltalk will be released March 2015:

Programming Smalltalk - Object-Orientation from the Beginning: An introduction to the principles of programming by Johannes Brauer

on Amazon

" A straightforward, step-by-step introduction to clear and elegant object-oriented programming. Using a language that's perfect for this kind of programming, the book has been tested in numerous courses and workshops over ten years.

Programming Smalltalk is particularly suited for readers with no prior programming knowledge. Starting from the first principles of programming, it teaches you how to use and create algorithms (reusable rules for problem-solving) and the basic building blocks of software. It goes on to explain how to develop complete applications and has a whole chapter on web applications as well as case studies.

Now translated into English, this edition was completely revised to be consistent with the latest version of Cincom® VisualWorks®, a professional Smalltalk environment. All examples were created using VisualWorks, which is available without cost for educational purposes, and can be downloaded and installed on any up-to-date computer. "