VAST 8.0. ESUG 2008, Amsterdam

1. Slides available at:Slides available at:
http://www.instantiations.com/company/detail/smalltalk-http://www.instantiations.com/company/detail/smalltalk-
events.htmlevents.html
John O’KeefeJohn O’Keefe
Principal Software ArchitectPrincipal Software Architect
29 August 200829 August 2008
8.08.0 and Beyondand Beyond

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 Product History
 VA Smalltalk™ 8.0 Preview
 Future Directions
 VA Smalltalk Forum
 Q&A

3. Who am I?
 First saw (Digitalk) Smalltalk in 1987; first used
Smalltalk shortly thereafter
 Joined original IBM Smalltalk prototype team in
1990
 Joined IBM VisualAge Smalltalk development
team as a founding member in 1991
 Team Lead and Chief Architect of IBM VisualAge
Smalltalk from 1997 to 2007
 Retired from IBM and joined Instantiations in
February 2007 to lead VA Smalltalk development
team

4. Introducing Instantiations
 Multi-faceted software company (re)founded in 1997
 Creates and markets leading edge development tools
for enterprise software developers (VisualAge
Smalltalk, Rational, WebSphere, Eclipse)
 Strategic partnerships:
• IBM Advanced Business Partner
• Eclipse Foundation Member
 Established Fortune 1000 customer relationships
 Hundreds of Smalltalk customers worldwide

5. HISTORY

6. Instantiations has contributed to the Smalltalk industry continuously since 1984.
 1984: Instantiations’ co-founders developed the world’s first commercial version of Smalltalk at Tektronix.
 1988: Founded Instantiations Inc. (first incarnation) and became one of the most prominent Smalltalk product and
consulting companies in the world.
 1992: Instantiations acquired by Digitalk, Inc. and lead design & development of Digitalk’s VSE product line.
 1990’s: Digitalk was a major partner of IBM in the creation and marketing of Smalltalk technology.
 1993: Co-founders of Instantiations founded ObjectShare Systems, a major Smalltalk product vendor and creator of
WindowBuilder Pro & WidgetKits, which was acquired by ParcPlace-Digitalk in 1996.
 1995: Digitalk was acquired by ParcPlace forming ParcPlace-Digitalk. Current Instantiations employees made major
contributions to the development and marketing of VisualWorks™ Smalltalk.
 1997: Instantiations Inc. (second incarnation) was formed in 1997 by the Tektronix/ Instantiations/ ObjectShare team.
The company has offered products and services to the Smalltalk industry since its inception.
 2004: IBM and Instantiations form relationship where Instantiations provides support for VisualAge®
Smalltalk.
 2005: IBM and Instantiations form relationship under which Instantiations releases VA Smalltalk 7.0.
 2006: VA Smalltalk 7.0.1 released.
 2007: VA Smalltalk 7.5, 7.5.1 and 7.5.2 released with support for Windows Vista, SuSE, SUnit and Refactoring Browser.
Our Smalltalk History

7. VA Smalltalk 7.5 History
 New Platforms
• Windows®
Vista®
• SuSE Linux®
• Windows and Unix 64-bit environment
 Tool Integration
• Refactoring Browser
• SUnit and SUnit Browser
• ENVY/QA
 New Function
• Native Oracle®
10
• Web Services Demo
• Browser Enhancements
• Windows Vista Themes

8. V8.0 PREVIEW

9. VA Smalltalk 8.0 Preview
 Seaside
 Browser Enhancements
 Web Services Enhancements
 Revised Documentation
 Miscellaneous Small Enhancements
 What’s Missing?
 When?

10. VA Smalltalk 8.0 Driving Forces
 Industry-accepted functionality
• Seaside and friends
 Modernization
• Browsers
 Compatibility
• ANSI Exceptions, Internationalization
 Performance
• Under the covers

11. SEASIDE

12. Seaside at ESUG 2007
 Currently researching how best to port Seaside
to VA Smalltalk
 Challenges
• Continuations rely on underlying execution state
reification (context) which has a different
implementation
• Class library differences

13. Seaside at ESUG 2008
 Ported both 2.8.x and 2.9
• 2.8.x work quiesced in favor of 2.9
• Refactoring done in 2.9 significantly eases porting
 Scriptaculous also ported
 Seaside porting layer developed
• Portions will be incorporated into the base
• Portions will be released as Squeak porting layer
• Remainder (if any) stays as Seaside porting layer

14. Seaside 2.9-jf.183 is Running
 One-shot Continuations mostly working
• Full Continuation support under development
• VM changes needed (and underway)
 Toolbar and Halos implemented
• Inspector works
• Profiler works
• Remaining tools under development

15. Seaside 2.9-jf.183 is Running

16. Seaside 2.9-jf.183 is Running

17. Seaside 2.9-jf.183 is Running

18. Seaside 2.9-jf.183 is Running
 Seaside-Tests-Unit 2.9-lr.132 95% green
 Seaside-Test-Functional 2.9-pmm.130
• All tests attempted; majority successful
 Scriptaculous-Tests - Unit pmm.47 97% green
 Scriptaculous-Tests - Functional pmm.47
• All tests attempted; majority successful

19. BROWSER ENHANCEMENTS

20. Browser Look and Feel
 Toolbar is flat
 Text pane is tabbed notebook
• Tabs can be dynamically added for additional tools
 Methods pane is now tabbed notebook
 Workspace is tabbed notebook

21. Browser Look and Feel -- Old

22. Browser Look and Feel -- Trial

23. Browser Look and Feel

24. Browser Look and Feel
 What is left to do?
• Tab icon/color changes to indicate content status
 Content not supplied
 Content changed but not saved
• Change Methods pane to sortable table list
 No tabs - always show all methods
 Sort on public/private or method name
• Finish AIX/Linux/Solaris port

25. Bytecode Browser

26. WEB SERVICES

27. Web Services “wrapped doc literal”
 Serialization/deserialization
 Import multiple nested schemas
 Tooling
 Insurance Example

28. Web Services Cookbook
 Guiding design principals
 Step-by-step instructions
 Debugging techniques
 Deployment descriptor management
• Translation to configuration parameters
• Where they are stored
 Registering a custom handler

29. REVISED DOCUMENTATION

30. Revised Documentation
 Appearance
• Converted to use CSS for formatting
 Content
• First significant content revision since VisualAge
Smalltalk 6.0
 Delivery mechanism = WebWorks
• Documentation Server is gone
• All capability (including Search) works from web or local
 Web will get ‘between release’ updates
• PDF produced from release-level content

31. Old Documentation

32. Interim Documentation

33. New Documentation

34. MISCELLANEOUS

35. Miscellaneous
 ANSI Exceptions fully supported
• Instance- and class-based exceptions integrated
 Windows Themes
• Supported on XP
• Patch available for early release
 Support for UTF-8 locales

36. What’s missing?
 OS/2
• Hasn’t officially shipped since VisualAge
Smalltalk V6.0.1
• REMOVED from VA Smalltalk V8

37. When?
 Beta
• Planned date is October 2008
• Focus is Seaside
• Announcement of availability on our website and
comp.lang.smalltalk
• Send me a note if you want a personal reminder
of availability
 General Availability
• Planned date is 4Q2008

38. FUTURE DIRECTIONS

39. Future Directions
 Seaside
 Web services
 IDE Enhancements
 Install
 Other

40. Seaside
 Upgrade to Seaside 2.9 GA (if not available
for V8)
 Assist in porting additional Seaside add-ons
• Magritte
• Pier
• RSS
• …

41. Web Services Tools
 XML editor
 XML <-> Smalltalk classes translation
 Automated definition of Smalltalk-based
web service
 Diagnostic tools
• TCP/HTTP/SOAP Monitor

42. IDE Enhancements
 Consolidate IDE branches
• Trailblazer
• VA Organizer (and its children)
• ENVY/QA
• RB
• VA Assist
 Reorganize/enhance examples
• available from Examples Launcher

43. Install
 Single install package
• Client and manager
• Initial install, upgrade install
• Repair, uninstall
 Seamless on Vista with User Account
Control (UAC)
 No manual intervention on *nix

44. Other
 Fast CGI -- persistent CGI in Smalltalk
 O/R Mapping
 TCP/IP V6
 Additional Windows CommonControls
 Windows Services in Smalltalk
• Eliminate special startup executable
• More flexibility in structuring services

45. VA FORUM EUROPE 2008

46.  23 September 2008, 10:00AM -- ?????
 Frankfurt, Germany
 http://www.instantiations.com/vast and
click on Marketing Events
 Questions?
• jtuchel@objektfabrik.de
• nicholas_gilman@instantiations.com.

47. VA Forum Europe 2008: Agenda
 Market Perspectives and Strategies
 Integrating VA Smalltalk into Today's IT
Landscapes
 VA Smalltalk 8.0 and Beyond
 Customer Experience Report:
Versicherungskammer Bayern
 Building GUIs in VA Smalltalk and Seaside
 Ask the Experts: Q & A
 Networking Opportunities

48. General Info: vast@instantiations.com
Sales: sales@instantiations.com
Support: vast-support@instantiations.com
John O’Keefe: john_okeefe@instantiations.com
Forum: www.instantiations.com/forum
Website: www.instantiations.com/vast
Slides available at
http://www.instantiations.com/company/detail/smalltalk-http://www.instantiations.com/company/detail/smalltalk-
events.htmlevents.html
More info about VA Smalltalk