Smalltalk Digest: April Edition
This month’s Cincom Smalltalk™ Digest is dedicated to our friend and Smalltalk advocate, Jim Robertson.
#WaybackWednesday It’s been five years since we lost our friend and #Smalltalk advocate, Jim Robertson. Jim touched the hearts of many people @Cincom and all over the world, and we want to celebrate his memory.
In honor of @jarober, share your fondest memory or story with us! pic.twitter.com/Qh41cs2QTw
— Cincom Smalltalk (@cincomsmalltalk) April 17, 2019
Welcome to the April 2019 edition of the Cincom Smalltalk Digest. In this exciting edition filled with big news and lots of value, we will talk about the following:
- Cincom® ObjectStudio® 8.9.2 and Cincom® VisualWorks® 8.3.2 Are Here!
- How Can PUL Users Receive the Latest Release?
- The Citizen Toolmaker
- Hidden Gems Screencast: Object Persistence, Part One
Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9.2 and Cincom VisualWorks 8.3.2 Are Here!
It is our pleasure to bring you the current version of Cincom Smalltalk. This release includes the releases of Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9.2 and
Cincom VisualWorks 8.3.2.
Cincom is the leading provider of commercial Smalltalk. Cincom Smalltalk adds value and simplicity to application development software, web application development tools and deployment environments.
ObjectStudio is “The Business Analysts Thinking Tool” and is an ideal solution for developing custom applications for Windows®. The value in ObjectStudio is the tools for analysts and developers to work effectively together on a solution in the analyst’s language.
VisualWorks is “The Cross-Platform Development Tool” and is the ideal solution for custom, enterprise-level, application development. With VisualWorks, the value comes from having the highest developer productivity and successes in solving large or difficult problems.
Both ObjectStudio and VisualWorks share the same core libraries and foundation, which means foundation improvements improve both products.
Where Can I Get This Release?
| As one of our valued Cincom Smalltalk customers, we’re pleased to offer you this opportunity to request the latest release of Cincom Smalltalk through our Customer Product Request Form. |
Should you have any questions or problems accessing the request form above, please contact your Sales Account Manager or Cincom Smalltalk Support.
What’s in This Release?
The current releases of Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9.2 and Cincom VisualWorks 8.3.2 are maintenance releases and contain fixes and improvements to the last major releases. Recent major releases include:
- Cincom Smalltalk Foundation
- Help (based on DITA-XML standards and Text)
- HTTP/2 protocol support
- ODBC3 support and more in our foundation, which serves both products
- Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9
- Enhancements for the Next-Generation User Interface (NGUI)
- Many refinements
- ObjectStudio also shares a foundation library and VM, as well as many of the same improvements as VisualWorks.
- Cincom VisualWorks 8.3
- UI Skinning color enhancements
- OS X retina support
- OS X graphics performance improvements
- OS X 64 VM
- Linux PPC 64 VM
- In preview are:
- “Classic Skins” to assist application upgrades
- Windows HiDef support
- 64-bit permspace, VMs for AIX64 and Linux Arm for Raspberry Pi
To learn more about these new releases, please see the product release notes. The release notes contain new feature descriptions and descriptions of the ARs and support resolutions that were addressed.
If we can assist you in any way, please contact us here.
How Can PUL Users Receive the Latest Release?
A few years back, the Cincom Smalltalk STAR Team made the decision to limit the maintenance releases of Cincom Smalltalk to customers only, leaving the major releases of Cincom ObjectStudio and Cincom VisualWorks only available as our Personal Use License (PUL) versions. So, if the maintenance releases are limited to customers only, how can PUL users receive this latest release?
Become a Customer!!!
A valuable program available for this exact situation is the REV Program. The REV program is an opportunity for Personal Use License users to take their passion to the next level and create their own businesses by becoming a Cincom Smalltalk customer. But, what value comes with being a Cincom Smalltalk customer? What benefits do we give customers that a general user never receives with the PUL?
Benefits that customers receive:
- The full product
- Full support for the product
- An opportunity to join the Developer Program to get early beta releases of our product, to see where we are taking our product and give comment and feedback to help us build out the future of commercial Smalltalk
- An opportunity to join the Partner Promotion Program to promote their application, help them develop the right markets or find the right space to promote what they have been working on
Are You Ready to Take Your Business to the Next Level?
This quick, easy way to partner with us and grow your business is only $500 and is a great investment that could pay big dividends as you grow your business. Don’t let another day go by. Let’s grow your business together and take your passion to the next level. Join the REV program today.
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GET the Limited Value Added License – $500
Need a little nudge? Watch these two videos from Suzanne Fortman, the Cincom Smalltalk Program Director and Engineering Manager, as she shares the value and benefits of being a Cincom Smalltalk customer:
The Citizen Toolmaker
At Camp Smalltalk 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina, we saw many great presentations. Cincom’s own Carl Gundel from the Cincom Smalltalk engineering team gave an engaging and instructive presentation. Carl explained how to use new features of Cincom VisualWorks 8.3.2 to create a custom coloring text editor by using the flexible new DocumentEditor and also demonstrated window layout using constraints as an alternative to positioning in the UI Painter. PetitParser was also leveraged in the examples.
In addition, he gave a snappy demonstration of the complete VisualWorks Smalltalk system running on the popular Raspberry Pi computer.
Hidden Gems Screencast: Object Persistence, Part One
The purpose of the Hidden Gems Screencast is to give developers who use Cincom Smalltalk some valuable insight into the useful abilities of the products that may not be obvious. In this month’s new screencast, Arden Thomas, the Cincom Smalltalk Product Manager, shares Part One of Object Persistence.
Object persistence is about saving and restoring the state of an object. This can be done in a variety of ways, often with a relational or object database. But what alternatives are there and how do they work? That is what this series will discuss, build and demonstrate.
Part One will demonstrate a simple, powerful and useful text-based technique that is not widely known.
Part One includes:
- Creating a text-based representation of a large object
- Saving the text-based format to a file
- Re-creating the object from the file contents
- Advantages/disadvantages discussion
Watch this new screencast below, or click here.
ESUG 2019 Date and Location Announced
As mentioned last month, the 27th ESUG Conference will take place on August 26-30. Smalltalk users from around the world will be coming to Cologne, Germany to attend ESUG 2019 hosted by a German software development company, ZWEIDENKER.
The address of the conference venue (Stadtgarten) is:
Venloer Strasse 40, 50672 Köln/Germany
As soon as more information regarding hotel accommodations and how to make reservations develops, we will be sure to pass it along.
We hope to see you there!
The 2019 Smalltalks Conference and FAST
Hi everyone!
This year the Smalltalks conference will be held at Facultad de Informática, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuquén.
Main event: November 13 to 15.
Workshops, tutorials and introductory talks: November 11 and 12.#Smalltalks19— F.A.S.T. (@fast_arg) March 18, 2019
Opportunities to Network with Smalltalkers and Programmers
In addition to the ESUG and the FAST conference coming up later in the year, there are other opportunities to meet with Smalltalkers and programmers from around the world. Upcoming networking and learning opportunities include:
- April 29-May 1, 2019 — deliver:Agile 2019 (Nashville, Tennessee)
- May 21-25, 2019 — XP 2019: 20th International Conference on Agile Software and Systems Development (Montreal, QC, Canada)
- June 6-7, 2019 — DevRelCon 2019 (San Francisco, California)
- August 5-9, 2019 — Agile2019 (Washington, D.C.)
- August 26-30, 2019 — ESUG 2019 (Cologne, Germany)
- October 21-15, 2019 — SPLASH 2019 OOPSLA (Athens, Greece)
- November 11-12, 2019 — Smalltalks19 (Neuquén province of Argentina)
Helpful Customer Links and Information
Our Customer Portal has links to all the important information our partners and customers need. Here’s a quick guide:
- Customer Product Request Form – For customers and partners with a valid customer number.
- Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter Request Form
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Cincom Professional Services – Get more information on product upgrades, mentoring, troubleshooting, performance enhancements, migrations and more.
- Customer Support
- Education Services
Popular Product Resources
Here’s a quick guide to the popular resources we have available on our website: