My Dolphin 5 Environment
By: Steve Waring
Home Pages: Journal Dolphinharbor
Created: 20021010
Last Update: 20021031
Article overview
I was a hard core image saver ... in Dolphin 4 I kept the same image for 6 months. That was by far the longest I had gone without freshening up. Two factors contributed to this, I thought that Dolphin 5 was just around the corner for 6 months, and I had hacked in Donald MacQueen's refactoring browser shell and various other goodies ... rebuilding the image would have been an effort. I also used STS so I had large version histories of all my packages.
A taste of image building ... I was was a Dolphin 5 beta tester and for most of that time I continued to develop primarily in Dolphin 4, and test in Dolphin 5. I came up with a script that saved my packages out of Dolphin4 into a various Dolphin 5 hierarchies. I could start up a fresh Dolphin 5 image, install my packages, and test away. It was nice to not have *every* package installed. It was nice to not have to look after an image.
I liked the taste ... and I have been a converted image builder for the past 6 months.
My Working Pattern
The files and folders:
- I have one hierarchy, the root (or image directory) is the default "Dolphin Smalltalk 5.0".
- I have a subdirectory named "Fresh" this contains a fresh image (named professional.*) and a number of batch files. These batch files will copy and rename the fresh image into the image directory. This means that I can have multiple images active in my image directory. Typically I have one named "Spray.img (+chg+sml)" one named "deploy.img (+chg+sml) and one named after my current project.
- The Fresh image is fairly fresh; It has patches applied, and the sizes of tool windows saved, but no more.
Building a new image:
When I start a new image, the first package I install contains a number of classes which I use to quickly configure a new image. I have a class, "SWStartup", which has class side methods which run various scripts, and install other packages. For example it:- Installs my IDEExtensions.
- Changes the compiler source formating to stop italic comments.
- Installs Ian Bartholomew's ChunkBrowser.
- Adds a few method categories.
Doing all this is simply a matter of opening a browser on this class, selecting one class method, and "doit".
I still save images, but only as a convenience, and I save my packages out more frequently than I save the image. I try to keep my images in a state so that I can rebuild, and be back to where I was in a couple of minutes. To ensure that I dont write over package changes, I only save one image, and if I work and make changes in a second image, I will rebuild the first. I have found that I rarely keep an image for more than a week before rebuilding.
IDEExtensions
Most of the modifications that I make to an image are part of my IDEExtensions.
The modifications I currently make are;
Browser class pane
Browser Method Source
Workspace
Package Browser
Most of the commands are self explanatory, some of the source is included at the bottom of the article. A couple that may not be obvious:
- "Paste String" converts a String on the clipboard to a literal String ... ie it doubles "'"
- "Copy as HTML" uses a Custom RB Formatter class to convert method source to HTML for the CSS stylesheet I use on Dolphinharbor and on this site.
- The "Insert ..." commands insert "Transcript trace", "Notification deprecated" or "self halt" into the current method at the current cursor position.
- The "Profile Selection" uses Ian Bartholomew's Profiler, by evaluating "Profiler profile: [selection]
- "Search SDK" takes the current selection, and uses a script to search through my Microsoft SDK\Include\ directory. Handy for finding those PoolDictionary Constants that turn red. (See later in the article for the script).
Source Control
In Dolphin 5 I have not been using STS except when I need to do a source comparison. I have been using a freeware versioning system that allows me to check in my package directories into a RCS based system. I typically do this manually each day. I only needed to look back into this a couple of times, but it is handy to have.
I use Ian Bartholomew's Chunk Browser and if needed, I can find (recent) previous versions of methods. What I thought I would miss most not using STS, is having full version history of my methods, however in practice I find that I have rarely needed it, and when I do, the source is in my current change log.
Handy Methods/Scripts
The following two methods (of my SWStartup class) switch on and off a notification that a method has been replaced. I use this when filing in code to make sure I know when base methods are being replaced.
SourceManager default fileInFrom: '!CompilationResult methodsFor! fireSystemUpdateEvent self isNew ifFalse: [Transcript display: ''methodUpdated ''; display: oldMethod; cr]. self method methodClass environment trigger: (self isNew ifTrue: [#methodAdded:] ifFalse: [#methodUpdated:]) with: self! ! !CompilationResult categoriesFor: #fireSystemUpdateEvent!public! !' readStream
SourceManager default fileInFrom: '!CompilationResult methodsFor! fireSystemUpdateEvent self method methodClass environment trigger: (self isNew ifTrue: [#methodAdded:] ifFalse: [#methodUpdated:]) with: self! ! !CompilationResult categoriesFor: #fireSystemUpdateEvent!public! !' readStream
I have an IDEExtension which inserts "Transcript trace" into the current method. (I have sound turned off on my development machine, so "Sound beep" isnt an option)
#swAdded.
sender := Processor activeProcess topFrame sender.
string := 'Transcript trace: ' , sender method printString , ' from: ' , sender sender method printString.
self nextPutAll: string; cr
The IDEExtension which inserts the above method send.
#swAdded.
^self
replaceSelection: '
"==="
Transcript trace.
"==="
'
To find package dependencies (ie packages that have the selected package as a direct prerequisite)
#swAdded.
selected := self packages first.
^(PackageManager current packages select: [:each |
each prerequisites includes: selected]) inspect
The extension below, which works on a multiple selection of packages, shows the root prerequisites of that selection. I use this for quickly building "install" packages, using the root packages as manual prerequisites
#swAdded.
roots := self packages copy asOrderedCollection.
self packages do: [:each |
roots := roots difference: each allPrerequisites].
roots inspect
The following method is a script that searches through the files in my Microsoft SDK\includes directory, opening my default editor on any matches. I use this via an IDEExtension.
sdkDirectory := 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Include\'.
searchString := '*' , aString , '*'.
Clipboard current setText: aString.
File for: '*.h' in: sdkDirectory do: [:each | paths add: each path].
File for: '*.idl' in: sdkDirectory do: [:each | paths add: each path].
progress := ProgressDialog create: ProgressDialog defaultView operation: [:progressIndicator |
[fs := FileStream read: each text: true.
contents := fs contents] ensure: [fs close].
(contents notNil and: [searchString match: contents ignoreCase: false])ifTrue: [
(MessageBox confirm: 'Keep Searching?')
ifFalse: [progress exit;cancel]]]].