Technical Articles from Cincom Smalltalk in 2020
In addition to the above stories, we also released detailed, technical articles throughout the year to help customers, partners and users be more productive in using Cincom Smalltalk.
- How Can You Use the Cincom VisualWorks EXDIs from Cincom ObjectStudio? (January)
- How to Use SQL Server Temporary Tables with Cincom ObjectStudio ODBC Wrapper (March)
- How to Handle Date, Time and Timestamp Data Types with SQLite in Cincom VisualWorks (April)
- Frequently Asked Questions about MacOS and Cincom VisualWorks (May)
- Cincom VisualWorks for MacOS Catalina 10.15.5 (June)
- Notes from the Product Manager’s Desk (June)
- Are There Tutorials or Instructions on How to Integrate Cincom VisualWorks with Jenkins? (July)
- Is ARM Displacing X86? Is History Repeating Itself? (November)
Developers are always looking for an edge—something that can help get their applications done faster and more efficiently, which makes performance improvement a hot topic. Pull up any past Digest and you will see that we constantly speak about the benefits of using Cincom Smalltalk. Arden Thomas has established a handy illustration that highlights these benefits. Dubbed the “Pearls of Smalltalk,” Arden highlights important aspects of Cincom Smalltalk that can positively affect performance, like productivity, simplicity and enjoyment.
- How Can Cincom Help Customers and Partners with Productivity? (July)
- Cutting the Complexity: How Cincom Smalltalk Makes Things Easier for Users (August)
- How Does the Simplicity of Smalltalk Help Cincom Smalltalk Users? (August)
Hidden Gems Screencasts
Arden Thomas started the Hidden Gems screencast series to share shortcuts, tips and techniques that might make it easier for others to use or jumpstart their Cincom Smalltalk usage. In these screencasts, Arden shares how he uses various components of Cincom Smalltalk, as well as features that he uses for his own productivity that he considers “hidden gems.” You can hear more details directly from Arden in this “Introduction to Hidden Gems.” Additionally, Suzanne Fortman shares her thoughts on the impact of these videos in “What Are the Benefits of Hidden Gems?”
This screencast series is a growing list of valuable nuggets that Arden has compiled over several years. At the time of this writing, the list numbers over 60, with more in the production pipeline for 2021. We’ve recently divided the series into manageable and understandable subcategories to make it easier for you to view. You can check out those subcategories here and individual articles below:
- What Is LargeArray and How Might It Be Useful for Developers? (February)
- Ever Hear of the BucketDictionary? (February)
- Looking for Methods in Your Smalltalk Library to Make Frequent or Difficult Things Easy? (May)
- Tips and Techniques of Using Name Spaces in Cincom Smalltalk (June)
- Practical Pragmas and Productivity (July)
- An Upgrade to the Lego Blocks of Application Development (October)
- A Deep Dive into the Hidden Gems Screencast Series (November)
Quantitative Gems Screencasts
Also this year, Arden began a new series of screencasts that serves as an introduction to Quantitative Analysis (QA)—a technique that uses mathematical and statistical modeling, measurement and research to understand behavior. These instructional videos include guided examples of how to do Quantitative Analysis as well as creating charts and indicators in Cincom Smalltalk and walking users through building algorithms and interactive charts. This series is perfect for anyone who has ever wanted to learn how to do technical or Quantitative Analysis on stocks, tweak and explore algorithms, build or experiment with their own charting system or learn a powerful language.