Smalltalk

Demo video of the Smalltalk IDE

February 28, 2006 9:34:37.682

Our local Python group has been discussing an article by Bruce Eckel claiming that he doesn't need an IDE to develop Python code since Python is simple enough to not need code completion.

I think that most people don't realize what an IDE can really do for you. It's not about code completion. It's about getting into closer contact with your objects and your code.

I've recorded a video that demos what a Smalltalk development environment can do. Hopefully, the Python people can start to see the potential of a powerful IDE.

Comments

The Power of Smalltalk

[James Robertson] February 28, 2006 10:07:37.177

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The Power of Smalltalk by James Robertson

Dave Buck demonstrates the power of a Smalltalk development environment with a screencast. Oh, if you're wondering about the red circle that opos up - that's due to a parcel Dave has loaded for Windows CE support. That circle is an artifact from that, not a feature of the standard environment.

Notice how he works with the debugger? That's the power.

The circles in the video

[ David Buck] February 28, 2006 10:53:48.067

Comment by David Buck

Actually, the circles are an option in Camtasia video capture software that allow people to see when I click. As you say, you don't see those when you're using the Smalltalk IDE.

cool

[Lex Spoon] March 1, 2006 4:12:16.584

Thanks for posting it.  It's a great, short demo of Smalltalk's programming style, where the programmed program never stops running until you want it to.

 

I particularly liked watching you hack one of the card stacks into emptiness in order to test out one of your method.   This screwed up your data structure temporarily by making cards disappear, and yet, the world did not end, flaming oblivion did not descend upon your computer.  Also, it's neat that you showed how to check a method by just running it -- how many environments make it (slightly) easier to run a method than to bring up its source code?

 

 When it's that easy to work with running code, you have a truly *dynamic* environment.

Put it up on video.google.com?

[Carl Gundel] March 1, 2006 9:49:02.341

Perhaps this video could be submitted to video.google.com?  I would like to see it, but for some reason I never get past the connecting... notice on media player.  Thanks!

Downloading VisualWorks as we speak

[Tero Saarni] March 2, 2006 13:45:51.708

Things went bit too fast for untrained eye like mine, but oh man that looked cool :) Thanks for the video!

Too fast for the untrained eye

[ David Buck] March 2, 2006 14:45:55.929

Comment by David Buck

Sadly, the more I delay in the video, the bigger the video file gets. As is, it was 25 MB which is a lot to download. I was hoping people would forgive me for rushing through it.

Auto completion

[ anonymous] March 4, 2006 4:12:38.951

Comment by anonymous

Actually the video shows one of weakness of ST IDE - auto completion. Instead, the author uses so often inspector to copy some method name

Hotswap

[Hummus and Magnets] March 19, 2006 8:10:00.584

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Give Dave Buck some points

[James Robertson] May 8, 2006 10:09:46.413

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Give Dave Buck some points by James Robertson

Dave Buck's excellent screencast demonstrating Smalltalk has hit reddit - go and give it some up points so more people see it.

Problem

[Carl Gundel] May 8, 2006 10:56:30.902

Well, now that it's on reddit, you absolutely must do something about the fact that people are having trouble viewing the video.  I can't seem to see it (my media player says Connecting... forever), and someone complained that the codec prevents him from viewing it.

Downloading just fine here

[ James Robertson] May 8, 2006 11:59:09.266

Comment by James Robertson

It's an AVI file, and while the download isn't speedy, it's happening

Okay, got it

[Carl Gundel] May 8, 2006 17:05:54.479

Thanks James.  I went back and right-clicked on the link to the video and then used Save Target As...   Then I just opened the file once it was done copying to my hard drive.  The problem is MS's fault since Media Player wasn't giving me good progress indication.  :-/