Richard Ronteltap - SmallJS - 26 February 2025

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For our February 2025 presentation, Richard Ronteltap will present his SmallJS project.

SmallJS is a free and open source implementation of the elegant and powerful Smalltalk-80 (ST) language. It compiles to JavaScript (JS) that runs in modern browsers or in Node.js.
SmallJS is file based, not image based, so you can develop in your favorite IDE. The default setup is for Visual Studio Code, with ST syntax coloring and step debugging! You code separately from the SmallJS base libraries (image) and only the parts you use are imported automatically when running your app.
SmallJS is fully object oriented, so customizable on every level. For usability, ST class and method names are kept mostly equal to their familiar JS counterparts. JS libraries already encapsulated in ST are:

  • Browsers: Document, Window, HTML elements, events, CSS, streams.
  • Node.js: HTTP server, Express, 4 databases, files.

SmallJS is mostly intended for use by JS devs that want a nicer language to work in.
But it can also be used by existing ST devs that are willing to learn a new ST framework that can directly run in browsers and can seamlessly access the powerful Node.js ecosystem, without the need for bridges between overlapping frameworks.

Richard studied Computer Science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), where he used used Smalltalk-80 to write a query optimizer for a prototype OODBMS. He currently works in IT / Software Management within the IT department of the UvA.

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 and drinks!

Update 28 February 2025: the recording of the presentation is now up on YouTube:


 

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