Kirk,
I would be interested in looking at your balance tree algorithm.
Do you have some code that I can inspect?
Sincerely,
Joe.
> On May 7, 2016, at 12:42 AM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk]
> <ml-node+s1294792n4893831...@n4.nabble.com> wrote:
>
> Newbies, I learned by examining a Dictionary until I understood how it works
> and that got me a job. I also got a little help from an old college chum
> after I started a Smalltalk special interest group of the Portland PC Club.
> Beyond that it was learning by doing, hiring an offshore consultant for a
> special project to make a database using a Balanced Tree algorithm (which
> oddly is not part of Squeak when that one data structure could replace most
> of the rest of them. Then there was the occasional help by Squeak experts on
> various things like how to turn off preferences or where to find code to work
> with a camera. A big help has been focusing my attention on writing a new
> computer language in Smalltalk which requires lots of work that most
> programmers never do. But I still can't count myself as an expert because I
> don't know lots of important things yet like how to use FFI or how to write
> an FF or how to make Squeak work on a Windows 98 computer which i have to use
> to run a CNC machine.
>
> Experts, my OP was mainly to talk you into doing some real useful work on
> Squeak instead of aggrandizing yourselves on work that is not truly useful -
> you know replacing all the collections with a Balanced Tree might be nice or
> making sharp examples of Secure Sockets or FFI that people can use or get
> Squeak repaired so it can work on Win 98 or without Halos replacing menus or
> how to make most of the programs one might download from CNet but I guess it
> rings a bell with the real newbies that there isn't enough help anywhere. To
> translate that, I as an intermediate programmer need to be taught how to be
> senior programmer. So we need better mentoring for everyone.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 4:30 PM, Phil (list) <[hidden email]>wrote:
> Joe,
>
> On Fri, 2016-05-06 at 13:23 -0700, Joseph Alotta wrote:
> > I am a beginner with Squeak and the problem I am facing is not
> > knowing how to go about using the tools available.
>
> Having gone through this myself not too many years ago, yet before
> things really started to get crazy (in good and bad ways) in the Squeak
> world, I appreciate what you're saying. Squeak and its dialects can
> seem pretty impenetrable until you learn 'the basics' which
> unfortunately are a bit of a moving target (esp. re: the tools and UI)
> depending on what you're trying to learn/do.
>
> >
> > There is a lot of language information, but not a “here’s what we do”
> > best practices for developers. I don’t mean coding, but I mean, how
> > to find the resource I need. How to build your project in pieces
> > that you can test, etc.
>
> This is where things probably get pretty tough once you get beyond the
> absolute basics. In its effort to get better, things are constantly
> being broken in ways that are often no big deal once you get over the
> hump and learn your way around. However, they're changing enough to
> 'break' a lot of the existing tutorials and they're changing often
> enough that said tutorials don't seem to be getting updated to reflect
> the changes in later releases. As if this weren't enough, there are
> factions with different views on overall direction which directly
> impacts things like best practices and is why we have different
> 'distros' ala Squeak/Pharo/Cuis/etc.
>
>
> > What I was looking for is an Apprentice kind of relationship, but
> > nobody seems interested or nearby.
> >
>
> That's probably going to be difficult as Smalltalk has a very small
> population of programmers vs. other languages. So getting someone with
> experience to spend 1-on-1 time with is going to be difficult and/or
> expensive. Your best bet to get started is to read the mailing lists
> (I would recommend this list, squeak-dev, and cuis as they are all good
> places to ask basic questions) and just ask when you get stuck. There
> are a few good written works you can use as a starting point (you might
> want to check out something from http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) and
> there are several people who have put together some good intro material
> on YouTube (For example Lawson English <a
> href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D"
> rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist
> ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D and the late James Robertson https://www.youtu
> be.com/playlist?list=PL61A023880D3529DB have put together some basic
> stuff that should be helpful)
>
> Something I'd highly recommend: if you find a tutorial you like, find
> out what version of whatever dialect they based the tutorial on and try
> to use that *exact* version (or at least get as close as you can: if
> something was written with Squeak 3.x in mind, don't use Squeak 4.x to
> try to follow along etc.) This will minimize the pain of trying to
> mentally map the tutorial to a different VM/image with even a slightly
> different feature set and UI. When you're just getting started, that's
> not the time you want to be worried about using the bleeding edge VM or
> image. If you can't figure out what version to use, post details and
> ask on the lists as either someone who used it or possibly even the
> person who created it might be reading.
>
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Joe.
> >
>
> Hope this helps,
> Phil
>
> >
> >
> >
> > > On May 6, 2016, at 1:35 PM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden
> > email]> wrote:
> > >
> > > Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk
> > rising above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea
> > of computer languages is out of business. I think it is time for the
> > Squeak balloon to be grounded to connect with the reality of why
> > computer languages exist - to make things easy for application
> > developers. So I propose all Squeak developers stop "improving"
> > Squeak for one year and spend the time writing useful applications in
> > Squeak. That could lead to a basket of new ideas for next year.
> > Maybe make this a regularly scheduled event - a half year for
> > applications and a half year for Squeak?
> > >
> > > The reason motivating this suggestion is on the advice of a Squeak-
> > Dev member, I downloaded the latest all in one and to my chagrin, I
> > found an improvement that made Squeak as worthless as a balloon full
> > of machine gun holes. The Workspace window gets halos with a right
> > mouse click on a standard 2 button laptop mouse. So I'll return to
> > an older Squeak for now.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Beginners mailing list
> > > [hidden email]
> > > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> > >
> > >
> > > If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the
> > discussion below:
> > > http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792.html
> > > To start a new topic under Squeak - Beginners, email [hidden
> > email]
> > > To unsubscribe from Squeak - Beginners, click here.
> > > NAML
> >
> >
> > View this message in context: Re: Machine gun the Balloon!
> > Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Beginners mailing list
> > [hidden email]
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>
>
> If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion
> below:
> http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792p4893831.html
> To start a new topic under Squeak - Beginners, email
> ml-node+s1294792n107673...@n4.nabble.com
> To unsubscribe from Squeak - Beginners, click here.
> NAML
--
View this message in context:
http://forum.world.st/Machine-gun-the-Balloon-tp4893792p4893854.html
Sent from the Squeak - Beginners mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
Beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
