Smalltalk Digest: May Edition
Welcome to the May 2020 edition of the Cincom Smalltalk™ Digest. In this valuable edition, we will talk about the following:
CUSTOMERS and PARTNERS
- Do You Know about Cincom Smalltalk Version 9?
- How Have We Made Customer Communication Easier?
- Are You Seeking Growth during These Unprecedented Times?
NEWBIES, FREELANCERS and DEVELOPERS
- Adding a New Tool to Your Developer Tool Belt
- Looking for Methods in Your Smalltalk Library to Make Frequent or Difficult Things Easy?
- A Well-Attended Virtual Smalltalk Event
- What Changes Have Been Made to Upcoming Developer Events?
- Frequently Asked Questions About MacOS and Cincom® VisualWorks®
- Popular Product Resources
ACADEMIA
- Who Should Use the Academic Personal Use License Version of Cincom Smalltalk?
Snippets for these articles can be found below:
CUSTOMERS and PARTNERS
Do You Know about Cincom Smalltalk Version 9?
Our customers and partners now have the opportunity to receive the new version of Cincom Smalltalk, Cincom®ObjectStudio® 9.0 and Cincom VisualWorks 9.0.
Both products share the same core libraries and foundation, which means improvements to the Cincom Smalltalk Foundation enhance both ObjectStudio and VisualWorks.
The current releases of Cincom ObjectStudio 9.0 and Cincom VisualWorks 9.0 are major releases. However, this release is an evolutionary release and not disruptive, as a major number increment might suggest. Version 9.0 continues to improve and enhance infrastructure to allow continued future improvements while keeping API capability.
- To learn all the details about the improvements in this major release, click here.
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 here.
How Have We Made Customer Communication Easier?
Author and former presidential speechwriter, James C. Humes, who is credited for authoring the text on the Apollo 11 lunar plaque, once said:
“The art of communication is the language of leadership.”
Cincom undoubtedly plays a significant leadership role in providing commercial Smalltalk. Because of this, it’s imperative that we are communicating to our customers and partners on a regular basis, helping them understand what tools and resources are provided through Cincom.
For your reference, we want to provide a breakdown of the various ways we communicate as well as some of the resources we have available to you. From upgrading your product to the current release to customer programs and services, tutorials, videos and helpful newsletters like the Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions newsletter, we have everything listed for you here.
Are You Seeking Growth during These Unprecedented Times?
The last few months have been quite a journey for the majority of the people who share this planet. Many companies have scrambled to figure out how to keep the lights on and their business afloat as we wait for some sense of normalcy to return to society. The truth is, as we move into new phases of this shared global challenge, we don’t know for sure what our new reality will be. That makes it even more important to bolster things in your company that already bring you profit and get creative in finding new ways to not only sustain your revenue, but grow it.
The Cincom Smalltalk group makes the success of our customers and partners priority number one. Our product and Services teams are aligned in this quest, having decades of experience in discovering and maximizing productivity and helping with customer success. Whether your employees have returned to the office or are still working from home, our Services team can still assist you with your needs. We have the knowledge and creativity to discover opportunities for growth, productivity and added value in your application and business and can do so safely and comfortably for you and your people.
Here are some of the ways we can help you find new potential in your application:
- Product Upgrades
- Mentoring
- Troubleshooting
- Performance Enhancement
- Migrations
- Proof of Concept
Interested? See more details, and learn how to get started discovering the hidden value, growth and profit here.
NEWBIES, FREELANCERS and DEVELOPERS
Adding a New Tool to Your Developer Tool Belt
Renowned psychologist and philosopher, Abraham Maslow, said,
“When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
Katie Bouwkamp of the Course Report recently discussed this in more practical terms for the modern-day developer:
“Technology is emerging at an unprecedented pace, with new coding languages created every year to keep up with this rapid innovation. Believe it or not, there are currently more than 500 programming languages, and that number continues to rise! … So, here’s the million dollar question: Can someone really become a successful developer only knowing a single programming language?”
Katie then goes on to share four reasons why knowing more than one programming language is important:
- More tools to get the job done
- Pick and choose the jobs you love
- Increase your salary potential
- Don’t get left behind: Become a more versatile developer
While there may be certain jobs available for just one development language, most companies and jobs do require knowledge of multiple programming languages. So whether you already know several languages or are just now deciding to start your learning, having multiple tools in your tool belt will ultimately make you a more valuable developer.
We’ve seen a recent surge in our Personal Use License downloads as well as eager developers who are jumping on board and partnering with us through our REV Program. We want to offer those same opportunities to you:
- Try Cincom Smalltalk ─ A great opportunity to try Smalltalk! The Personal Use License of Cincom Smalltalk makes it easy for someone to learn and become familiar with our technology. The Personal Use License is free for you to use for your own private use. Curious? Click here to start exploring Cincom Smalltalk and all that it can do for you.
- Buy Cincom Smalltalk ─ A great opportunity to take your idea to the next level and create your own business! This popular program is an affordable investment of $500 that was created to give you a low-cost opportunity to partner with Cincom and receive all the benefits of being a customer. As a Cincom Smalltalk customer, you receive:
- Access to the full product and all releases for 1 year/12 months
- Full support for the product during the 1 year/12 months
- An opportunity to join the Developer Program to get early beta releases of our product to see where we are taking it and comment to help us build out the future of commercial Smalltalk
- An opportunity to join the Partner Promotion Program to promote your application, help you develop the right markets or find the smartest space to promote what you have been working on
Interested? Join the other entrepreneurs like you and get started in this very popular program today! Click here to start your partnership for only $500.
Looking for Methods in Your Smalltalk Library to Make Frequent or Difficult Things Easy?
One of the most successful video series we publish is the Hidden Gems Screencast, a series produced by Arden Thomas, the Cincom Smalltalk Product Manager. Arden created this series for developers who are passionate about their use of Cincom Smalltalk and want to learn more about its productivity and ease of use.
Have you ever found yourself wanting additional methods within your Smalltalk library to make frequent or difficult things easy? This Hidden Gems discusses extending the String class with some utility methods to improve your code. It also examines some principles and goals to keep in mind that serve as good practices to those who are new to Smalltalk, and reminders for our experienced friends.
Watch below, or click here.
This is followed up by a bonus Hidden Gems for a String pattern matching utility that shows multiple means for simplifying the creation and execution of string pattern matching.
Watch this bonus below, or click here.
Please send comments, questions and suggestions to the Cincom Smalltalk Product Team at CSSTARTeam@cincom.com.
Watch over 50 other Hidden Gem screencasts in our video archive here.
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/videos/
A Well-Attended Virtual Smalltalk Event
The UK Smalltalk User Group had its monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 29th. However, due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, this gathering was an online meeting from home.
The hidden benefit of this format was that people from all over the world were able to attend this virtual meetup. Over 30 people signed up for this event with the majority of them attending at least some part of the meeting.
Our own Suzanne Fortman and Niall Ross were in attendance and even the one and only, Kent Beck, made an appearance! George Cox shared his experiences with StrongTalk and several others presented lightening talks.
Maybe you have something you’d like to share with the Smalltalk Community? This online format allows everyone to listen, learn and share the passion that is Smalltalk.
The next meeting for the UK Smalltalk User Group will be on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. GMT+1. Alan Jackson will be talking to the group about Kyma (https://kyma.symbolicsound.com/), an object-oriented sound design environment built with Smalltalk technology. Afterwards, a social hour will follow with chats and impromptu presentations and discussions. Please note, this will be an online meeting, so anyone can attend from all over the world. Click here for meeting details and to RSVP.
If you’d like to see more comments or join this group, please visit the UK Smalltalk User Group Meetup page.
What Changes Have Been Made to Upcoming Developer Events?
In light of the global changes that have occurred recently, and the ever-changing circumstances that accompany it, we have a few updates for some upcoming events. Please adjust your plans and calendars accordingly:
- June 8-12, 2020 — XP 2020 (ONLINE)
- June 30, 2020 — DevRelCon Earth 2020 (ONLINE)
- July 19, 2020 — Women in Agile 2020 (ONLINE)
- July 20-24, 2020 — Agile2020 (POSTPONED to an unknown date)
You can monitor other future meetups and conferences, as well as any changes to their scheduling on our Events page here.
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/events/
Frequently Asked Questions about MacOS and Cincom VisualWorks
Does Cincom VisualWorks run on MacOS Catalina?
- Cincom VisualWorks 9.0 and newer will run on MacOS Catalina (10.15.x).
- Prior versions of VisualWorks will not work due to changes that Apple made in MacOS.
Is there a 64-bit version for MacOS?
- Recent versions for MacOS are 64-bit installations.
I ran into a problem when trying to install VisualWorks on MacOS.
- Please see the installation pictorial here for visuals of installation issues and the solutions.
More questions?
If you have more questions, feedback, or if you would like to discuss the product, please contact the Cincom Smalltalk Product Team at CSSTARTeam@cincom.com.
For other frequently asked questions, visit our FAQs section where we answer “How do I…?” and other questions here.
Popular Product Resources
If you are new to Cincom Smalltalk or just need help in finding something specific on our website, this section will be a quick guide to the popular resources we currently have available:
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/smalltalk-product-tutorials/
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/videos/
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/presentations/
ACADEMIA
Who Should Use the Academic Personal Use License Version of Cincom Smalltalk?
Colleges and universities around the world are evaluating their options for bringing students back to campus or continuing with remote education. However, even though most academic institutions have still not made decisions about this, we’ve recently had an uptick in our Academic Personal Use License downloads as more professors are encouraging their eager developers to try out new programming languages. After all, as we learned above, knowing more development languages will only create more value for eager students who are ready to begin their careers.
As a reminder, our software is free for professors and students to use for their remote teachings and studies, but does require a form to be filled out to receive the link to download it. If you (or another colleague or classmate) would like to use our software for personal academic use, we have it available to you.
To learn about the Cincom Smalltalk Academic Personal Use License (APUL):