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Showing posts from 2024

On Large Language Models and Smalltalk -- 30 Oct 2024

Meeting Announcement Date: Wednesday, 30th October 2024 Time: 7:00 PM GMT Join us for an engaging session on the latest in Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), featuring two insightful presentations. Introduction to Large Language Models and Gloodata Speaker: Mariano Guerra Mariano will walk us through the fundamentals of LLMs and provide a behind-the-scenes look at building the Gloodata application. A Unique Perspective on LLMs Speaker: Tudor Girba Tudor will offer a distinct view on LLMs, showcasing demos based on GT that highlight their innovative approach. We look forward to your participation! [1] http://gloodata.com [2] https://feenk.com 

Christian Haider: How values make systems simpler - 25 Sep 2024 @ 7pm BST

How values make systems simpler Distinguishing between stateful Objects and Values has long been recognized as fruitful. Values are universal context-free abstractions that prevent side-effects and allow for a functional programming style. Though programming languages provide simple Values like Integer and String, more complex Values are usually not supported. We show how to model complex structures as Values in Smalltalk, which allows for a simple and versatile implementation. The resulting Smalltalk systems are simple, clear and easily testable. Christian Haider  is the author of the  PDFtalk  library used in  smallCharts  and other projects. Underlying is a simple implementation of  Values  which he uses extensibly. Christian will show how Values make systems simpler and easier. Examples for some uses and the limits of the approach will be discussed. Since Values use only standard Smalltalk features, it can be used in most other Smalltalks. And all ...

Javier Pimas -- Live Metacircular Runtimes: The case of Egg Smalltalk - 29 June 2024

 Egg is a new Smalltalk dialect that was designed from scratch to incorporate some interesting features: A module system with namespaces that replaces the old-good Smalltalk global. Dynamic identifiers, which are bound lazily similarly to how methods are lazily bound. A multi-VM architecture, with different VM implementations written in C++, Pharo, JavaScript and Egg. The Egg-in-Egg VM is special in that the VM component is just another module of the system, creating what we have named Live Metacircular Runtimes (LMRs) [1]. The most interesting characteristic of LMRs in Smalltalk is that they can be developed using standard Smalltalk tools, which shorten feedback loops when doing VM development. During the talk I'll show a little bit about Egg and its LMR, and how not only VM developers get more productive when writing VMs, but also application developers can better understand what the VM does behind the scenes. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.16973 - Live Objects All Th...

Tudor Gîrba: What exactly is Glamorous Toolkit? - 24 April 2024

To some people Glamorous Toolkit is a Pharo environment. To others it’s a knowledge management system. Others might see a code analysis platform, a data visualization or an API browsing tool. Yet others see the graphical stack with its interactive editors. Glamorous Toolkit is all of these. But it’s really also none of these. These are merely examples of the many forms the environment can be molded to. And there can be many more. Glamorous Toolkit is primarily an environment that makes it possible to create many experiences seamlessly and contextually. This then leads to a new way of programming that we call Moldable Development. Tudor Gîrba is a software environmentalist and the CEO of feenk.com where he works with an amazing team to make the inside of systems explainable. Much of the work is embodied in Glamorous Toolkit ( gtoolkit.com ), a novel environment that enables moldable development.  This will be an online meeting from home.  If you'd like to join us, ...

Maximiliano Tabacman: Electronic Roleplaying Assistant - 27 March 2024

 In this presentation, Maximiliano Tabacman will be presenting the main features, abstractions and design decisions behind ERA , the Electronic Roleplaying Assistant. Abstract: ERA is currently being used to create characters and manage the adventures of many gaming groups across the world, supporting Navigator RPG, Against the Darkmaster, Rolemaster Classic, Rolemaster Fantasy and Rolemaster Unified. We will review how Pharo allows creating a deployed version that runs locally in Linux, Mac and Windows, while Digital Ocean and Auth0 allow running an online server with different user roles. https://pharo.org/success/RolPlayingAssistant.html We will also mention how ERA makes use of the different frameworks developed and maintained by the Buenos Aires Smalltalk group, hosted at Github. Maximiliano Tabacman is a long time Smalltalker with a Phd from the University of Buenos Aires. He is a Software architect at Mercap, executive secretary at FAST and creator of ERA.  This will b...

Juan Vuletich - Bootstrap & Dynamic Cuis Libraries - 28 February 2024

 Juan Vuletich returns to the UKSTUG to discuss some recent enhancements to Cuis Smalltalk : Bootstrap and Dynamic Cuis Libraries. Bootstrap: Creating Minimal Images from Scratch > * The last ancestor of Cuis Smalltalk that was bootstrapped from scratch was Smalltalk-76. Since then, various released images of Smalltalk-80, Squeak and Cuis were derived by applying updates to the previous one. A new tool called 'Bootstrap' allows the creation of minimal Smalltalk images from scratch. These images are in the Spur 32 and 64-bit formats, compatible with the OpenSmalltalk VM. 'Bootstrap' gives developers complete control over what is included in the new image. It is compact, relatively simple, and easy to extend and adapt. Dynamic Cuis Libraries : A binary format for Cuis code that is powerful and quick to load > * Dynamic Cuis Libraries are binary files with pre-compiled code that can be loaded into a running Cuis image. They can add new classes and exte...

Pierre Misse-Chanabier - Polyphemus (Take 2) - 31 January 2024

Pierre Misse-Chanabier will talk to us about Polyphemus for the Pharo Virtual Machine. The presentation will focus on how to create Tooling on the Pharo Virtual Machine. (This does not require Virtual machine level knowledge) We will start by taking a look at a few existing tools. We will create one or two small tools, and see how they differ from tooling on the image side. Pierre Misse Chanabier is a recently graduated PhD with a focused interest on Virtual Machines, Code Generation, and Meta Programming. He worked on and contributed to many different levels and parts of the Pharo ecosystem. He is now working on how to leverage images for more than what they do now. He's currently working at Microdoc on the Graal VM. Born in south of France, he currently lives in Lille. This will be an online meeting from home. If you'd like to join us, please sign up in advance on the meeting's Meetup page to receive the meeting details. Don’t forget to bring your laptop an...