HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk

I need to change the default Smalltalk colors for the background and the
foreground. I would like them to be the same as those used by X for the
background and foreground, i.e. :
	*background: #aabbcc
	*foreground: #xxyyzz

However, when I modify the colorDefault method in LookPreferences, I do
not get the right color, but one which is close to it (so says Smalltalk,
but I do not agree!), even though the color I am looking for is in the
color palette of the default screen.
	
What am I doing wrong? What should I do?

Jean-Jacques Moreau.

                                    \\
/------------------------------------\\---------------------------\
| Hewlett-Packard Laboratories        \\                          |
| Filton Road, Stoke Gifford           \\                         |
| Bristol BS12 6QZ                      \\ // jjm@hplb.hpl.hp.com |
| U.K.                                   \X/      +44  272 228764 |
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From: rb@otter.hpl.hp.com (Richard Brown)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 10:41:58 GMT
Subject: Re: very large fonts
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
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Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 16:56:05 +0000
From:         "benot marchal" <INFSTDMARCH@BNANDP51.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Future Issues of Object Orientation

Hi,

In a previous article, Hurs Hoelzle wrote :

> Speed discussions somewhat remind me of the 70s "C (or Pascal or..)
> versus Assembler".  At that time, people had to decide between higher
> productivity (i.e. a high-level language) or a factor of around 2-3
> performance gain (assembly).  Most people chose the "slow" high-level
> languages for normal applications, and I don't think anyone regrets
> it.  Furthermore, as compiler technology advanced, the performance gap
> narrowed considerably.
>
> To me, today's "should I use {Eiffel, Smalltalk, Self} or C" sounds
> like a deja vu.  If OO really helps productivity, it's worth a certain
> performance hit (the factor depends on the application, of course).
> If you can design and implement your new fancy application in half the
> time, you're better off than an application that is twice as fast but
> comes to market much later.

Clearly this is the point. OOL requires more resources to run but they
reduce design costs. Just like procedural languages did in the past.

The question, I think, is on the size of the project. Who could manage
today's normal project in assembly language ? Nobody. Because in assembler
you must remember too many think for a normal human. Adresses, labels, e.t.c.
It's hard to write reusable code in assembler. Or you have to code handfully
instructions for it : push return adress and arguments on the stack.
And you get code who look similar to the one produce by a compiler.
The other way is to generously comment the code and change it handfully again
when you want to reuse it. This is a source of bugs.

I guess that's the reason why today's compiler produce efficient code.
We can do better than them on small pieces of code but not on a today normal
project.

The same thing will certainly happen with OOL. With projects becoming larger
and larger, programmers will certainly spend many of their designing time
to produce reusable code.
But OOL offers tools which deals with reusability. And they'll certainly
do it better and better. Better than man when the project is big.

If you've ever try to write a Windows class in C, you certainly understand
what I mean. A big part of the code consist of instructions that could be
automatically generated by a OOL compiler. With no efficiency loose.

                                                  ben
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Date:         Sat, 5 Sep 1992 09:47:51 UCR
From:         Federico Zoufaly <FZOUFALY@UCRVM2.BITNET>
Subject:      FAQ

Hello everybody,
Yesterday I accidentally erased the FAQ message that was sent through the netwo
rk.  Could someone please tell me how I can receive it again, or where to find
it?
I would also like to know (maybe it is a FAQ) which are the normal sites
which have Smalltalk goodies.
Thank you very much.
From: riks@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Rik Fischer Smoody)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Have you got a Big Dictionary?
Date: 15 Sep 92 00:35:01 GMT
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR

Consider Dictionaries.
The overhead of creating a small one is small.  This is good.
 I checked one handy image: there were 540 instances of dictionary or 
    subclasses with a total of  4137 elements.   Thus an average of less 
    than 10 objects/dictionary.  Your performance might vary.
But occasionally a giant arises.  It would be worthwhile to work a little 
    harder on setup if we could avoid time-consuming processes on the big 
    ones.  E.g. in at least one Smalltalk, removing an object from a 
    dictionary results in rehashing everything following that item.  There 
    are N-squared (and worse?) processes lurking there.
What if there were a class called BigDictionary which obeys all of the 
    external protocol of Dictionary, but which is tuned for performance 
    when it is large?  Perhaps when a small (ordinary) dictionary grows, it 
    could automatically turn into a BigDic.
    That would normally avoid adding overhead to small and short-lived
    dictionaries.
Has someone done this already?  Care to share?


Rik Fischer Smoody
    smOOdynamics	Systems Made Outa Objects
	2400 NE 25th, Suite 800
	Portland, OR 97212
503-249-8300		riks@cse.ogi.edu
From: khaw@parcplace.com (Mike Khaw)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: ST80: senders of <primitive: #> ?
Date: 11 Sep 92 21:27:51 GMT

In <STEINMAN.92Sep11085322@hawk.is.morgan.com> steinman@is.morgan.com (Jan Steinman) writes:

>Also, rest assured that #allInstances does return them all, even ones
>that exist only in that zombie world between loosing their last
>reference and being collected as garbage. You should preceed
>#allInstances with a GC if you prefer to increase the liklihood you
>instances will be meaningful!

Alternatives are:

4.0: use #atomicAllInstances

4.1: use 'allInstancesWeakly: true'

These methods answer with a weak collection, which unlike an ordinary
kind of collection, has the property of not keeping its elements from
being garbage collected just because they are members of the weak
collection.
--
Michael Khaw	Domain=khaw@parcplace.com, UUCP=...!uunet!parcplace!khaw
ParcPlace Systems, Sunnyvale, CA	PRODUCT INFO: info@parcplace.com
From: tim@parcplace.com (Tim Rowledge)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: ST80: senders of <primitive: #> ?
Date: 10 Sep 92 17:39:32 GMT

Ok, I cheated.  I don't have that exact peice of code in my System Workspace
any more than anyone else.  I suppose mine might be different in being 
'editable', you know, I can change words to do something slightly different.
(add lots of mildly sarcastic smileys)
My point is that all the tools in the system are there for you to explore
and try things out - but then you know that, ot you wouldn't be using
Smalltalk at all.
All anyone needs to do is look inthe browsers for what the methods do,
what objects they use, what messages are sent etc.  It should be easy to
find the methods implemented in CompiledMethod, note that yes indeedy
it can return the primitive number invoked and replace a couple of words
in the sample code to try it out.
Is that a problem or am I missing something?  (Aside from perfect manners
and a Lotus Elan)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Date:         Tue, 15 Sep 1992 11:46:50 UCR
From:         Federico Zoufaly <FZOUFALY@UCRVM2.BITNET>
Subject:      Moving a Wrapper

Hello everybody,
I am having an awful time trying to move a wrapper in a decent way.
I am using St80 r4.1 on a DecStation.
Here is my problem:
I have a collection of objects displayed on a window.  The objects are Views an
d use a wrapper to mantain themeself in the window.  The objects, should move
on the window so I need a way to change the wrapper coordinates and update the
display sending a changed message.
My ultimate goal is to have animated objects that can interact in a window.
Does anyone have some clue?  I will appreciate any kind of help.
Thank you very much, Federico.
From: rb@otter.hpl.hp.com (Richard Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: very large fonts
Date: 9 Sep 92 14:28:19 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.

In comp.lang.smalltalk, rb@otter.hpl.hp.com (Richard Brown) writes:

> Thanks for the example code, it works great. I have changed it a
> little so that the menu gives more info about the type of font -eg
> boldness, italics etc.

> However, I have experienced some problems getting #bold, #italic,
> #small etc working after I have selected a font. For example, when I
> change fonts using the menu, all the text which was previously bold
> becomes normal, as does small and italics.

> Do you know what is causing this problem?

Well in fact, I introduced the problem in TextAttributes
setStyleToFont: by doint a copy of the fontDescription rather that
creating a new one and copying certain attributes from it.

However, why should this have cause the problem??

Richard
From: ken@gunshy.ocunix.on.ca (Ken Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: RE: Smalltalk V-Windows
Date: 5 Sep 92 17:16:51 GMT
Organization: OTI Ottawa


In article <1992Sep4.120316.19367@informix.com>
christb@infmuc (Christian Barmala) writes:

>
> Has anyone a good idea how to parse the win.ini-file with smalltalk.
> This file should contain a section:
>
> [myapplication]
> option1=xx
> option2=yy
> option3=zz
>
> Obiously there are many ways to serch for this section, but how is
> is done best in Smalltalk-V?
> Thank you, Christian Barmala
>
Here are the DLL routines that I use to read and write
to the win.ini file...

    result := KernelLibrary
                getProfileString: 'newsbrowser' asParameter
                keyName: 'distnetdir' asParameter
                default: '' asParameter
                returnedString: (aString := String new: 80)
                size: 80.
    result = 0
        ifTrue: ["nothing there"]
        ifFalse: [aString := aString trimNullTerminator]

and

    result := KernelLibrary
                writeProfileString: 'newsbrowser' asParameter
                keyName: 'distnetdir' asParameter
                lpString: aString asParameter.

Note: you'll need to add the API call, I believe the readProfile is there already.


    !KernelDLL methods !

    writeProfileString: appName keyName: keyName lpString: aString
     <api: WriteProfileString struct struct struct  short>
     ^self invalidArgument! !

Hope this helps,

Ken

---
NewsBrowser (v0.2)
Ken Walker, Software Engineer, Object Technology Int'l Inc.
EMAIL: ken@gunshy.ocunix.on.ca | ken@oti.on.ca
Phone: (613) 820-1200 Fax: (613) 820-1202
[self contents apply: Disclaimers standard] fork
From: eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: ST80: senders of <primitive: #> ?
Date: 15 Sep 92 08:24:41 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

bruce@utafll.uta.edu (Bruce Samuelson) writes:

>> Come on guys, this is in the System Workspace!

>However, one does not always remember to look there.  I often forget.
>--
>**********************************************************
>* Bruce Samuelson	Department of Linguistics	 *
>* bruce@ling.uta.edu	University of Texas at Arlington *
>**********************************************************
 
Time to coin a new acronym?  How about RTFSW?   :-)  :-)

				...John Woods
-- 
 /******* cut here ******* John Woods ******* cut here ********
 * Philosophy: Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (Virgil) *
 * Disclaimer: Every statement in this file is possibly !true *
 ******** cut here ******* John Woods ******* cut here *******/
From: mike_r@nic.cerf.net (Mike Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Digitalk Smalltalk/V286 and OS/2
Date: 8 Sep 92 18:54:46 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: CERFnet

In article <1992Sep8.133457.7204@lsa.umich.edu> jwh@citi.umich.edu writes:
(stuff about new V/PM deleted)
>which result is smaller DLL files.  I haven't had the chance to check
>on speed differences.  I've been told that it should be available in
>a couple of weeks.  Based on the last beta version, I don't see why this
The stuff seen here is the results of the compiler technology I 
described in the previous post. The images will be smaller, but they
may be just a touch (probably not so as you would notice) slower to 
get going. 

>I think the 'engine' for V for OS/2 is now different from the Windows 
>version.  My understanding is that is is much more sophisticated.  I'm
>not sure whether they are planning on moving that technology to
>V/Windows or not.
>
I've been told that this is definitly happening, but just for 32
bit windows (NT and Win32).

Mike


Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: voss@cs.uiuc.edu (Bill Voss)
Subject: Looking for examples of hypertext buttons
Organization: Typed Smalltalk Group, Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of IL in Urbana.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:07:38 GMT

Has anyone implemented something like <press-here> buttons in ST?
I would appreciate any code or advice.

				thanks,
				Bill Voss <voss@cs.uiuc.edu>
--
Favorite Dialect: st80r41 but others also accepted.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: yoav@seas.gwu.edu (Yoav Intrator)
Subject: Looking for more complete GRAPHICS class Lib.
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 20:40:39 GMT

Hi,


 I am looking for a more complete graphics class lib than the one
currently  available in st80 ver 4.1.

If you have any additional methods or classes 
( such as methods for calculating the intersection points of lines with 
a circle, a rectangle, an  ellipse or other shapes) or know of another source
(public domain) please send any information to:


 yoav@seas.gwu.edu

Thanks 
Yoav Intrator

(202) 994 5252
From: podenski@bcsaic.boeing.com (Patrick Podenski)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Is there a goodie to keep a prompter window on top?
Date: 8 Sep 92 16:47:25 GMT
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle

In article <1992Sep6.153845.7115@zoe.network23.com> terry@zoe.network23.com (Terry) writes:
>Does anyone have a fileIn that prevents a prompter or any
>other DialogView from being buried?
>
This should do the job:
NOTE: This has not been checked out in OW 4.1, but does
work in OW 4.0.


!DialogView methodsFor: 'Modal accessing'!

objectWantingControl
	"2 July 1991 Podenski -- added check to ensure 
	that DialogViews stay on top, but only in 
	the case that they are really modal. A DialogView
	being used as a subview is not modal."

	| theController |
	theController := self topComponent controller.
	theController == nil ifFalse: [(theController isKindOf: DialogController)
			ifTrue: [self topComponent raise]].
	^self controller viewWantingControl! !

'From Objectworks(r)\Smalltalk, Release 4 of 25 October 1990 on 30 September 1991 at 
4:51:40 pm'!
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: bushell@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Tom Bushell)
Subject: Internet email access to Digitalk
Organization: NSTN Network Operations Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 01:36:37 GMT


While trying to sort out a problem with returning my V/Win 2.0
upgrade (I'll probably post my reasons for returning it later),
I had occasion to try some of the Compuserve IDs mentioned
in a previous posting by Jim Howe.  The only one that 
generated any response was:

    76711.366@compuserve.com

As Jim said, this is Brenda Friederich's account, and I found
her very helpful.  Apparently, they have just set up some
kind of Internet mail access, because you can now also reach
Brenda at:

    brenda@la.digitalk.com

I have had same-day response to the messages I sent to this
address, as opposed to 3-4 day response from the Compuserve
address.

Hope this is helpful.

-Tom Bushell

PS  I also forwarded many of the postings complaining about
    Digitalk's poor customer service that have recently
    appeared.  Brenda says she passed them on to her
    management, so I hope we'll see some improvement.
From: kishore@simius.as.nps.navy.mil (Kishore Sengupta)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Graphic representations of smalltalk code
Date: 7 Sep 92 03:19:13 GMT
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA


Suppose I'm building a reasonably intricate application in
ST-80 (R4, sparc). I had started with a visual diagram depicting
the objects, classes, etc., of a first-cut design. However, in
implementing the design, I've made several changes along the 
way and rearranged the structure of classes/subclasses, etc.
The net result is that I no longer have a good overall
sense of the "architecture" of exactly what objects, subclasses,etc
I've actually implemented. 

The question is this: is there a way to retrieve the implementation
in a diagrammatic (i.e., graphical) sense, using some standard
O-O notation such as Rumbaugh et al or Schlaer et al?  Given the
extensive graphical facilities in Smalltalk, I suspect that someone
has written a utility that does just this; I'd appreciated any pointers
anyone can provide.

Thanks.

Kishore Sengupta

Assistant Professor: information systems
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, California

Telephone: 408/646-3212
Fax:       408/646-3407
E-mail:    kishore@simius.as.nps.navy.mil
From: khaw@parcplace.com (Mike Khaw)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: ST80: senders of <primitive: #> ?
Date: 9 Sep 92 06:17:15 GMT

In <VOSS.92Sep8215556@laslo.cs.uiuc.edu> voss@cs.uiuc.edu (Bill Voss) writes:

>I would like to browse all methods that invoke a particular primitive.
>(Just like "senders" does, but for a primitive instead of a method.)

>Does anyone know of a simple way to generate this collection of methods?

4.0:
	"open a method list browser on all methods that call primitives."
	Smalltalk browseAllSelect: [:m | m primitiveNumber notNil]
	"open a method list browser on all methods that call prim 123."
	Smalltalk browseAllSelect: [:m | m primitiveNumber = 123]

4.1:
	Browser browseAllSelect: [:m | m primitiveNumber notNil]
	Browser browseAllSelect: [:m | m primitiveNumber = 123]
--
Michael Khaw	Domain=khaw@parcplace.com, UUCP=...!uunet!parcplace!khaw
ParcPlace Systems, Sunnyvale, CA	PRODUCT INFO: info@parcplace.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: steinman@is.morgan.com (Jan Steinman)
Subject: Re: ST80: senders of <primitive: #> ?
Organization: Morgan Stanley & Company
	<STEINMAN.92Sep9083039@hawk.is.morgan.com>
	<tim.716058912@parcplace.com> <VOSS.92Sep10014911@laslo.cs.uiuc.edu>
	<tim.716146772@parcplace.com> <VOSS.92Sep10202751@laslo.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 13:53:22 GMT

   From: voss@cs.uiuc.edu (Bill Voss)
   Organization: Typed Smalltalk Group, Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of IL in Urbana.
   Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 02:27:51 GMT

	   2) I didn't want a solution which "appeared to work"
	      but rather a solution that I was confident would
	      return EVERY method which invoked primitive #bla.
	      How do you test that an allInstances implementation
	      works correctly?  Is it worth the effort for a
	      one-shot implementation?

I don't mean to boast, but the "CompiledMethod allInstances" idea I
posted is the only one that will return "EVERY" method that invokes a
given primitive.

If you crawl through the #browseAllSelect: code, you'll notice that it
eventually does an "Object allSubclasses". If you have a multi-rooted
hierarchy (more than one subclass of nil), you will not detect
primitives in those other class trees, which generally *must*
implement at least a few critical primitives like #basicNew,
#basicAt:, basicSize:, etc.

But if you don't know if your class hierarchy is multi-rooted or not,
you probably don't know if there are subclasses of CompiledMethod,
either, so there's at least one other way to not get them all!
(Ohmigod! there are primitives EVERYWHERE! Halp! :-)

Also, rest assured that #allInstances does return them all, even ones
that exist only in that zombie world between loosing their last
reference and being collected as garbage. You should preceed
#allInstances with a GC if you prefer to increase the liklihood you
instances will be meaningful!

--
: : Jan Steinman	   steinman@is.morgan.com		 Bytesmiths : :
: : 2002 Parkside Court				   West Linn, OR 97068-2767 : :
: : 503/657-7703					       212/956-8722 : :
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: voss@cs.uiuc.edu (Bill Voss)
Subject: ST80  Extending a font.
Organization: Typed Smalltalk Group, Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of IL in Urbana.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 02:36:34 GMT

Suppose that I would like to add a new character say value 1000 which 
happens to look like say the Olympic 5 rings symbol.  Is there support 
under R4.1 for extending the current default font with my new character?
I haven't found any approaches which look very promising yet. 
(Perhaps it is listed in the System Workspace ;-)

-Bill Voss
From: johnson@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ralph Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: simulation in Smalltalk
Date: 15 Sep 92 15:29:55 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL

I'm trying to collect references to papers on simulation systems
in Smalltalk.  I happen to have a genuine manual for SimTalk,
and of course know about the chapters in the Blue Book on simulation.
I haven't sat down and poured over my old OOPSLA proceedings.  The
only things I can think of off-hand are the Alternate Reality Kit and
Thinkertoy, which is a simulation system if you are broad-minded
enough.  I'd greatly appreciate any other references.  I'll summarize,
so you don't need to post unless you want to.

-Ralph      johnson@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: Adi Sumantri
Subject: Subcripbe
Organization: Prodigy Technologies Corp
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 17:11:10 GMT

Please add me "sumantri@prodigy.bc.ca" 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: terry@zoe.network23.com (Terry)
Subject: Is there a goodie to keep a prompter window on top?
Organization: Mystech Associates
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 15:38:45 GMT

Does anyone have a fileIn that prevents a prompter or any
other DialogView from being buried?

Thanks

Terry
-- 
terry@zoe.network23.com
{rayssd,xanth,mirror,att}!galaxia!zoe!terry
From: esda@ukc.ac.uk (E.S.D.Albuquerque)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Application Browser for Objectworks
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:55:42 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


 
        I'm searching for an `Application Browser' like package for
Objectworks (release 4), to manage differents projects dealing with
differents classes and global variables. I use an AB for Digitalk 
(the goodies' one).
Do you know if there's some available? 

Thanks in advance.
 
 
 
                                        Marcos Magalhaes
					mavm@di.ufpe.br
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
From: steinman@is.morgan.com (Jan Steinman)
Subject: Re: Have you got a Big Dictionary?
Organization: Morgan Stanley & Company
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 14:06:05 GMT

In article <42715@ogicse.ogi.edu> riks@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Rik Fischer Smoody) writes:
   What if there were a class called BigDictionary which obeys all of the 
       external protocol of Dictionary, but which is tuned for performance 
       when it is large?  Perhaps when a small (ordinary) dictionary grows, it 
       could automatically turn into a BigDic.
       That would normally avoid adding overhead to small and short-lived
       dictionaries.
   Has someone done this already?  Care to share?

To get a start on this, look at the Symbol class variable USTable,
which is sort of an ordered BigSet, although it isn't implemented as a
class. The general strategy is divide and conquer, as in KSAM.

--
: : Jan Steinman	   steinman@is.morgan.com		 Bytesmiths : :
: : 2002 Parkside Court				   West Linn, OR 97068-2767 : :
: : 503/657-7703					       212/956-8722 : :
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk