Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView Cincom Product Manager jrobertson@cincom.com Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:58:02 EDT http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/images/cst_small.jpg Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView 50 81 en-us James A. Robertson Copyright 2007 Cincom Systems, Inc. 2008-07-05T01:58:02-04:00 39.214103 -76.878807 Second Degree Wikipedia-ness http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Second_Degree_Wikipedia-ness&entry=3392675882 BottomFeeder Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:58:02 EDT

I may not have a Wikipedia page, but BottomFeeder does - check it out here.

]]> 3392675882 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3392675882 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3392675882 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3392675882 BottomFeeder 4.5 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=BottomFeeder_4.5&entry=3383749349 BottomFeeder Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:22:29 EST

Now that the latest Cincom Smalltalk is out, I've released the latest BottomFeeder - version 4.5.

What's new? The upgrade to VW 7.6, and this - you can share subscriptions for podcasts with iTunes more easily now (Windows and Mac). I'll be adding more functionality in that direction over time.

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]]> 3383749349 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3383749349 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3383749349 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3383749349 New BottomFeeder Development Build http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=New_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3382248645 BottomFeeder Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:30:45 EST

I've just posted a new development build of BottomFeeder 4.5 - other than updated documentation, this should be it. Once the latest Cincom Smalltalk release is formally out the door, I'll go gold on this as well.

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]]> 3382248645 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3382248645 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3382248645 blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=New_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3382248645 blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=New_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3382248645 Reinout Heeck 2008-03-06T13:06:40-05:00 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"this should be it." &nbsp;Unfortunatly it it isn't ;-)</span></p> <p>BottomFeeder on Mac Os X interferes rather nastily with the VisualWorks developement tools because BTF claims it can open .im files, tells the system which icons to show with .im files etc.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I'll send detailed instructions by email, I tested these and they seem to properly divorce BTF from the VisualWorks IDE.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> Interference with VisualWorks IDE on Mac http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3382248645 Updated BottomFeeder Development Build http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Updated_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3381321617 BottomFeeder Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:00:17 EST

I found the source of the problem; it had to do with a botched build script and old API usage. Anyway - the updated download links may be found here.

Update: The files have all been updated again, as of 11 PM EST :)

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]]> 3381321617 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3381321617 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3381321617 blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Updated_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3381321617 blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Updated_BottomFeeder_Development_Build&entry=3381321617 W^L+ 2008-02-24T17:25:09-05:00 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>&quot;Parsing Error: no element found<br />Location: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/cst-master.xml<br />Line Number 40, Column 57:&quot; </p></div> Damaged RSS again http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3381321617 Even More RTP Fun http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Even_More_RTP_Fun&entry=3381305420 BottomFeeder Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:30:20 EST

I'll be uploading a new build of BottomFeeder (dev) today, due to some interesting issues I've had reported to me. Seems the Runtime Packager was being a bit over-aggressive... again.

Update: No build today - the issue is some kind of odd heisenbug that needs a lot more investigation...

Update 2: Yes, an update is coming. There was a bug in the timezone setting code that I turned up...

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]]> 3381305420 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3381305420 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3381305420 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3381305420 BottomFeeder 4.5 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=BottomFeeder_4.5&entry=3381180575 BottomFeeder Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:49:35 EST

I've got a preview version of BottomFeeder 4.5 up on the site now - look here, under the dev links. Here's a screen shot from my Mac, which is where I run it now: (click through for the full image)

The major change - the iTunes integration I've posted on. I'll likely do more with that over time.

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]]> 3381180575 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3381180575 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3381180575 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3381180575 Hooking up to iTunes with Windows and COM http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Hooking_up_to_iTunes_with_Windows_and_COM&entry=3380618172 BottomFeeder Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:36:12 EST

I was a little worried that actually working with COM (as opposed to the browsing I was doing yesterday) would be hard, but it was surprisingly easy. Here's the code I used to get a COM driver for iTunes on Windows:


getITunesCOMDriver
	"Get a driver for dealing with iTunes"
	
	| ref guid driver descs ifc |
	ref := COMRegistryInterface extTypeLibraryIDMap
		detect: [:each | 'iTunes *Type Library' match: each name]
		ifNone: [nil].
	ref ifNil: [^nil].
	descs := ref containedTypeDescriptions.
	ifc := descs
		detect: [:each | 'iTunesApp' match: each name]
		ifNone: [nil].
	ifc ifNil: [^nil].
	guid := ifc guid.
	driver := AdvancedDispatchDriver
		on:
			(IClassFactory createInstance: guid iid: External.COMConstants.IID_IDispatch context:
					External.COMConstants.CLSCTX_SERVER).
	^driver

That retrieves a driver that can receive the same kinds of messages as the iTunes AppleScript library can. In particular, this is how I then toss a Bf subscription over to iTunes (assuming it's a podcast):


doWindowsITunesSubscribeFor: aFeed
	"use COM to subscribe in iTunes"
	 
	| driver |
	driver := self getITunesCOMDriver.
	driver ifNil: [^self].
	driver SubscribeToPodcast: aFeed url.

I could use the entire available driver API with that object, but for now, all I really care about is the subscription option. All in all, it was pretty straightforward.

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]]> 3380618172 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIPBServlet?guid=3380618172 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?guid=3380618172 http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/servlet/CommentAPIServlet?guid=3380618172 Tossing a subscription to iTunes http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Tossing_a_subscription_to_iTunes&entry=3380550781 BottomFeeder Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:53:01 EST

Boy, this simple iTunes integration I wanted to try out was easy. I just added a feature to BottomFeeder for the Mac (not published to the downloads yet):

That uses the same approach I outlined earlier today. Next week, I'll be looking at doing the same thing for Windows using COM. I'm hoping it's not too hard but we'll see...

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