_
Hello,
This directory contains various extensions to the ParcPlace Systems Smalltalk-80 system and tool-set that I've developed in the course of over 10 years of using the system. Many of these "goodies" are very old, and existed at Xerox PARC before ParcPlace even spun off. Others are newer, or were contributed to this "BagOfTricks" by other consultants (they are acknowledged by name below). This whole collection is being made available for free with NO GUARANTEES OR LIABILITY WHATSOEVER in the hope that various parts of it will be of use to neophites and "old hands" alike. Comments and contributions are invited.
If you want to grab the whole archive to your local machine, try either the
UNIX compressed tar
file
or the
Macintosh BinHexed Archive file
found in the UIUC Smalltalk archive.
NOTE: This code has been tested on ParcPlace Systems's VisualWorks 2.0. No claims are made as to its portability to other versions or dialects.
If you want to file these "goodies" in to look at them, READ and then file in the STPWorld.bld "build script" file. REMEMBER that you should either (a) file this into a "fresh" VisualWorks 2.0 virtual image or (b) FILE OUT YOUR CHANGES before filing in the STPWorld.bld file.
Because I frequently move this stuff between UNIX, Macintosh and DOS machines, all the file names are terse (DOS 8+3 format) and upper-case.
These files are categorized roughly by "area." The categories (sub-directories) are:
README
This file; print it out and read it thoroughly before proceeding.
ls-lR
A UNIX-style recursive listing of the files in this distribution.
STPWorld.bld
A Smalltalk "build script" to construct my virtual image based
on the source files found here. PLEASE READ THE README FILE AND THIS BUILD
SCRIPT, before you attempt to file in the build script. You can edit this
build script file to keep from filing in any of the goodies you don't want.
When you file in the build script, it needs to know where the "STP9"
directory is located (relative to where your VI is running). If it's not in a
subdirectory named "STP9," you'll get a prompter asking where it is.
STPMini.bld
A Smalltalk "build script" to "file in" the bare minimum
recommended stuff from this goodies package (a subset of the files in
STPWorld.bld).
Init.st
A sample of the kind of start-up code that one does before
executing the build script STPWorld.bld (just an example).
Demo.t
Some more comments and example code to demonstrate the groovy
features of the system extensions.
Behavior.st
A useful
behavior message: allSubInstances--returns all instances of all subclasses.
Case.st
Adds a case statement; a neat example, but don't use it too often.
CharArray.st
Adds many useful string crunching methods--stripTrailingSpaces, padTo:,
clipTo:, breakIntoLinesOf:, stripCRs. cr.
Collect.st
Several useful collection extensions--second, third, etc.,
with:with:with:with:with:, etc.
Color.st
Adds a couple of useful and terse ColorValue creation messages.
CurlyBr.st
An example of a Scanner extension. this adds code so that
curly-braces "{...}" can be used as nesting comment characters. (Dangerous
because it changes the language!) This is not filed in by default.
EditDate.st
Adds the method "updateEditDate" to CharacterArray. If the
receiver (string) includes a string like 'LastEditDate: 1994.12.2' then
copy-replace everything between this key and the end of the line (or file)
with today's date in European format (e.g., 1994.12.03). Answer the new
string, or nil if the key is not found. Edit this method if you prefer a
different key or date/time format. This file also arranges to do this
whenever you save a file from the FileBrowser orParagraphEditor (unless
is down). I find this *extremely* useful for text files--they're
always time-stamped with the date of their last alteration.
Extstr.st
Code to support external I/O in floats, longs, etc.
FNamMisc.st
Adds a few new methods for file names--base, extension, etc.
Printing.st
A few modified printing methods: Time without seconds, Dates
with leading 0's (e.g., 1995.04.08), and short-hand to print
LimitedPrecisionReals with a given precision.
SafeHalt.st
Adds the method "safeHalt" to Object that's a "LeftShiftHack"
of "self halt"--very useful (Barry's idea).
UNIXProc.st
Adds some useful short-hand methods to UNIXProcess. (More
variations are possible.)
Colors.st
This file changes the screen colors independents of the settings of the
window system. First, it changes the method that gets the preferences to
answser nil, then it sets the preferences by hand (edit this second method to
taste), then it re-initializes the world.
Decorate.st
This is a version of the method
BorderDecorationPolicy>>initialize that gets rid of menu bars and moves the
scroll bars over to the left where they belong.
Launcher.st
This file changes the Visual launcher to include iconic buttons
for the file editor and WireModel screen saver (in the "toys" directory in
the file "3d-grafx.st"). It also changes the spacing of the other buttons and
alters a couple of the icons. It is included as an example of how/where to do this.
Mot_Menu.st
This file changes the default sizing of items in Motif-look
menus as an example for those who prefer "compact" menus.
MotBord.st
This changes the scroll bars and menus of the Motif look to be a
bit more compact.
NewMenu3.st
This file adds neat hierarchical text menus to a few views. I
prefer them (some others don't; it's a matter of taste). This assumes the
paragraph editor extensions and new fonts added above. This is quite useful
if you use function keys for most common functions, and a real pain in the
neck otherwise.
Par_Edit.st
This file extends the text editor (ParagraphEditor class) in
many ways. It adds string search, line-wrapping, spelling (on UNIX platforms
only), goto-line, and other functions. It deepens the left-shift paste buffer
to 16 places, and redefines the cursor arrow keys so that -cursorKey
moves the caret in units of "words" and -cursorKey extends the current
selection in any direction--try it out! is altered so that
means forward-delete.
The file also adds several new initialization methods that (1) map the
left-hand function keys of a SPARC keyboard (or the top row function keys of
SGI or IBM keyboards) for again/undo/copy/paste/cut, (2) adds "alt" commands
for Macintosh-style copy/cut/paste ("alt" is "command" on the Mac), and (3)
adds control keys such as:
^a = accept
^z = cancel
^d = do-it
^p = print-it
^q = inspect-it
^e = end-of-line
^r = start-of-line
^x = transpose-chars
F1 = change-case
F2 = Capitalize-first-letter
ESC-ESC = select current type-in
etc., etc.
Users are encouraged to extend or modify this to suit their own favorite
habits or keyboards. To see the mapping of the keys, say "ParagraphEditor
dumpTable" and look in the Transcript. See also the do-it code at the end of
the build script file to see how to initialize this.
Scrollbu.st
This adds both up and down buttons to the top and bottoms of
default look scroll bars.
SlowScrl.st
This file puts a delay in the scrolling loop for most up/down
scroll buttons (the buttons found at the top/bottoms of scroll bars). The
delay can be initialized (in the initialize methods of the various
BorderDecorationPolicy subclasses) so that "smooth" scrolling is a bit slower
on fast machines. Change the delay value in the appropriate initialize method
for faster or slower scrolling.
SmalList.st
A change to a smaller-than-default serif font for lists. This
assumes that the text attributes changes in the file TextAttr.st have been
filed in.
TextAttr.st
This file changes the font mechanism to support more fonts and
font menus. One can now change the global font size with a message-send
(e.g., TextAttributes defaultSize: 16), so that applications can
automatically adapt themselves to the size of the screen. Please read it and
edit to your personal taste. After filing this in, the normal, small set of
pre-defined TextAttributes is enlarged to include tiny, small, normal, large,
huge, and demo sizes in serif, sans-serif, and fixed-pitch typefaces. Look at
the font menu and examples in the file demo.t.
ClsDescr.st
This file extends
the browser's class description to include an inheritance comment that says
what instance variables are inherited. I don't remember where I found this.
Demo-Not.st
A MODEExampleBook is a simple notebook editor application. It
stores a TextBook (an ordered collection of named texts) as its contents, and
has methods for viewing, executing text on book pages and for editing the
structure of the book. It can also read text books from BOSS files and store
them as BOSS or ASCII. The file MODEBOOK.BOS is an example of a BOSS'ed-out book.
FBrowser.st
A new file list browser that sorts files to put directories
first and adds auto-enter capacity (to change to a directory as soon as you
select it). It also adds the "pop" menu item in the pattern view to pop up
one level in the file hierarchy, and "recent" that maintains a list of
recently-visited files and allows you to select from them. Note that this
file assumes you've already loaded ViewComp.st (see below). This assumes that
the view-resizing code (see below) has been filed in.
FileDlog.st
A FilenameDialog brings up a pop-up list where the user can
select directories and files. This file also changes a few methods to use the
file name dialog when opening a file editor or reading in a changes file. To
test this, execute "FilenameDialog getFilename."
ItalComm.st
This file changes the format for method printing in the browser
and debugger so that comments are underlined (or italicized, or bolded, at
your choice). I believe this makes them easier to locate within large methods.
MBrowser.st
Adds "browse class" and "do it" menu item to the method list
browser. This is useful on class example methods.
PBrowser.st
This is an extension of the standard system browser that breaks
class categories up into a two-level hierarchy based on hyphens in their
names. This means there are 5 list views along the top of the browser, the
first of which is called the "package". This tools is also known as the
6-paned browser, and exists in many versions. This assumes that the
view-resizing code (see below) has been filed in.
Publish.st
A useful extension so that saying "Class_name publish" creates
instance variable accessing methods automatically. This is quite redundant
with the VisualWorks CodingAssistant tool, but I find this way easier.
ViewComp.st
This file adds the functionality to views that their subviews
can be resized. If you use ViewWithResizableSubviews instead of CompositeView
in your views, you can use view button (right-button) to "drag"
the view's internal borders. See ResizingController's class comment. This is
based on code from Marcel Schelvis. Note that this works only on "old" MVC
applications that used CompositeViews, rather than "new" VisualWorks
applications that use ReComposingComposites. These "old" applications,
however, include all the development tools.
ViewOpen.st
This file changes most of the system's view class open methods
to use ViewWithResizableSubviews rather than CompositeView (so only file it
in after ViewComp.st). Note that this is dangerous and may conflict with
other changes you may have made. It also adds a "skip to caret" button of
the Debugger.
3D-Grafx.st
3-D WireFrame
models and Transformations for 3-D rendering. This has really neat demos in
the class WireFrame. This requires the code in ZPoint.st and Random.st to
work. The original version came from Hans-Martin Mosner. After filing this
in, say "WireModel screenSaver."
Clocks.st
Simple analog and digital clocks. Holding down the shift key
while opening them makes them update every second; otherwise the update every
minute. There is also code th put the date and time in the title of the
launcher window and update it every minute.
Random.st
A few new messages for generating random numbers in limited
ranges, or selecting from collections at random.
S_Savers.st
This file adds two nice screen savers: a bouncing logo and
random splines. I place the spline screen saver on the launcher menu
(together with the wire model example). This is less useful on MS-Windows and
the Mac because I can't open a window that covers the entire screen without a
menu bar showing.
ZPoint.st
3-D points, i.e., one can say 3@4@7.
This directory has four Smalltalk-related documents taken from the Internet: (1) the Smalltalk FAQ (Answers to Frequently Asked Questions) maintained by Craig Latta and found in xcf.berkeley.edu:/pub/misc/smalltalk/FAQ/FAQ.txt (there's also a version there in html); (2) Ralph Johnson's list of "classic" Smalltalk bugs, found in st.cs.uiuc.edu:/pub/st-docs/classic-bugs; (3) a note on the relative performance of Smalltalk and C++; and (4) a comparison of smalltalk and C++ by Douglas R. Krueger.
This directory contains examples of configuration management for a large application. It includes the "build script" and "file-out script" for the MODE Musical Object Development Environment by STP. See the README file in this directory.
(1) The color-changing code has been reported not to work on MS-Windows. (2) The FilaDialog is sometimes wierd about accepting typed-in input followed by--you might have to use the "accept" menu item. (3) The new FileBrowser sometimes cannot "pop" up to a higher-level directory. I'm sure there are more; please send me fixes if you stumble across them!
For more detailed information, mail a letter to STP.
[Stephen Travis Pope, stp@CNMAT.Berkeley.edu]