So why the difference? The plugins and the bookmarks. I have a bookmarks set which exports as 5 Mb. It is too much for Maxthon to load. It is deadly when I ask even IE8 to first add a bookmark (go make coffee or tea or take a stroll.)

But Curl can load dynamically, so watch for the bookmarking addition to our Curl embedded browsers over at LogiqueWerks.

If you are using linux, just make a few edits to the tksliderc file to flip the slash delimiters and set the path to your SNOBOL4. I also replaced the gvim entry with gedit but had to give an editor parameter of –new-window as it refused to add a tab to a running instance. A very handy feature is “Save Transcript” which for starters will save the hot-key guide when you first start the IDE.

If you like python or converge, you will be at home with the indenting. And there is SNOBOL for python in SnoPy.

I can only hope that someone extends the editor with XOTcl. SNOBOL patterns are also available for UNICON, one of the OOP variants of ICON, the language which evolved from the SNOBOL5 project.

It would appear that SNOBOL was the first language accidentally released as open-source (part of the story preserved in the Griswold papers here in MPLS at UMN.)

The story of SNOBOL and performance can be found by a google on SPITBOL over at duckduckgo.com

For another OOP-variant of ICON (this one with UNICODE) see the objecticon project ( a name choice as regrettable as ICON and UNICON as any web search will reveal.)

For a pythonic variant of ICON, see converge. For the latest on-going contribution of ICON to programming languages, see Fibers in Ruby 1.9

Here is the Curl 5.0 code for the applet:

{curl 5.0 applet}
{curl-file-attributes character-encoding = "windows-latin-1"}
{applet manifest = "manifest.mcurl"}

{include "./utils/guide-header.scurl"}
{include "./utils/support.scurl"}

   {x-example-ref
        title = "Folding Tree example",
        {url "./examples/RIA_with_Curl.curl"}
    }

What this does is create a labeled hotspot on my page: with one click an entire Curl client-side scripting environment opens. The running example is there; the code that is running is there; buttons to execute, save applet; revert changes; close popup – and the panel allows editing the script.

Clicking on ‘Execute’ causes a popup version of the script to run with your changes.

I had seen this cool way of working with code as part of the example macro

{example
…
}

What was new was the ‘expandable’ and ‘collapsible’.

I cannot imagine this being more concise in JavaFX or in Groovy. Here is the Curl procedure from the include file:

|| Copyright (C) 1998-2006, Sumisho Computer Systems Corp.
|| All Rights Reserved.
{define-proc {x-example-ref
                 title:String = {message Example},
                 href:Url, ...}:Visual
    let display:Graphic = {example-ref title = title, href, ...}
    {for-each-graphic
        {proc {g:Graphic}:void
            {type-switch g
             case g:TextEditPanel do
                || consume right click, so TreeControl ignores it
                {g.add-event-handler
                    {on e:PointerPress do
                        {if e.button == right-button then
                            {e.consume}}}}}},
        display}
    {return
        {text-width-display
            {expandable
                border-width = 2px,
                {bold {value title}},
                display}}}
}
|| *** calls the following ***
{define-proc public {example-ref
                        loc:Url,
                        title:#String = null,
                        base-url:Url = {get-base-url},
                        manifest:ComponentManifest =
                           {get-default-manifest},
                        package:OpenPackage =
                            {OpenPackage
                                CURL.IMPLICIT.APPLET,
                                CURL.IDE.DOCUMENTATION,
                                manifest = manifest},
                        ...
                    }:Graphic
    let result:any =
        {try
            {evaluate
                base-url = loc,
                package = package,
                {format "\{example title = %w,\n %s\}",
                    title,
                    {read-from loc}}}
         catch e:Exception do
            {paragraph
                Error in {bold {value loc}}:{br}
                {text color = "red", {value e}}}}
    {return {Frame result, ...}}
}

It is perfectly readable. When you see ‘…’ inside { } what you are seeing are rest arguments, or unnamed arguments for variable parameter procedure calls. And then again in the

{ return {Frame result, …} }

– these are not code elisions! The critical {example } macro is in the evaluate block. Dynamic language fans will note that the result is their preferred type: any.

And to learn to use this expand/collapse ‘live’ code environment/widget all I had to do was right-click on a folding code-editor page in the Curl Documentation Viewer which is itself Curl. I copied in the files to include for my applet and set a few imports in my ‘manifest.mcurl’ file. No CLASSPATH to look at, no question of which JARs are where. No JavaScript library required. As cool as Smalltalk, Strongtalk or the XOTcl IDE.

To see one in action, you will need the XML Document Model for Curl 5.0 from curl.com
Just install the RTE, then the IDE and then the XDM. Open your Documentation Viewer and search for ‘WSDK XML Document Model’ or just ‘build-xml‘

The proc identifies an anonymous procedure and we pass in what Groovy calls a ‘closure’ at on e:PointerPress do or what would likely be an inner class Listener in Java.

If you know something as cool using FLASH with ActionScript, post a snippet or a link to same.
Of course you could do this using AJAX with Prototype and Scriptaculous. But I got this page out in a matter of minutes. Oh yes, Sun says JavaFX is not about ‘throwing up pages’ …

Imagine that you are working on a problematic page. You drop in a gem like this and now you are displaying and experimenting with your code. Only Seaside for Smalltalk can rival this as far as I am aware but that requires some understanding of Smalltalk. I love Seaside, but I know of nothing that can beat this. Of course Rebol 3.0 is on the way …

As for snide remarks from Sun in their JavaFX promo, there are quick ways to throw up a web page… I like blocknote and there is the Meta/HyperCard Revolution product or even MS Word or FrontPage in a pinch…

Curl is proud to be LISP-like without the parentheses.

But it is sometimes less than clear how parentheses are to be interpreted in CURL.

It is clear enough how parentheses affect the application of mathematical operators.

But consider this: {let t1:int, t2:int = 42}

You may be aware that this leaves the value of t1 as zero.

So consider this: {set (t1, t2) = (1, 2)}

How are we to understand this as a CURL assignment statement?

The index to the on-line CURL documentation is resoundingly silent on the rationale for this syntax.

Set with parentheses is a fact. Is it because () is an operator?

But why should it not be the case that after {set (t1, t2) = 42} both t1 and t2 are 42 instead of this being a syntax error?

In the case of {set (t1, t2) = {my_func}} we know that the number of values returned by my_func must be two values.

You may want to guess at these values: {let t3:int, t4:int = (3,4)}

If you guessed 0 and 3, can you also tell me why this was not also a syntax error? It is enough to make my curly hair, well, curl left then right.
LcurlR

You should not have to be a Prolog programmer to learn Oz, but short of being one already, what sense could you make of the errors you will encounter trying to follow the introduction to compiling an Oz application? The ‘Aufhebung’ issue again. Or you must almost know it just to learn it.

Here goes.

In Rebol you would just script it so:

write %dump.txt read http://localhost:8080/perl/get_env.prl

But in Oz you will need to compile to a functor, so let’s get started on the tutorial’s Webget.oz

You will need to wrap the file as a functor, so we start with

functor

end

We will open STDIN and STDOUT so we need Open and this will be an Application so we will import both:

functor
import
   Application
   Open
end

What follows is the code from the tutorial which will not compile (not in OPI, not on a cmd line):

functor
import
  Application
  Open
define
   Args = {Application.getArgs record('in'(single type:string)
                                  'out'(single type:string))}
   Status = try
	I={New Open.file init(url:  Args.'in')}
	O={New Open.file init(name: Args.'out'
        flags:[write create truncate])}
	in
	  local
	      proc { Copy}
	          S={I read(list:$)}
	       in
	          if S=="" then
	             {O write(vs:S)} { Copy}
	          end
	       end
	    in
	{ Copy}
    end
	catch _ then 1
	end
{Application.exit Status}
end

The warning we will receive will be an arity mismatch for Copy.
I experimented with {CopyWWW _} and with {CopyWWW X} in place of {Copy}
Running ozc -c in TextPad compiles succesfully by using {Copy _} in the first 2 occurences of {Copy}. Ditto for selecting ‘Compile File’ on the emacs oz menu.
Now on to compiling that oza file.
To get the oza file I had to use a cmd session:

ozc -c Webget.oz -o Webget.oza

Otherwise compiling (in TextPad or emacs) gave me just Webget.ozf
Now I could run the ozengine against a web page:

ozengine Webget.oza --in http://localhost:8080/perl/get_env.prl --out dump.txt

The program will only exit with CTRL-C CTRL-C and leaves file handles open but if you are content to run it just once

type dump.txt

Oops… no file?

We back track by revisiting the code.

functor
import
  Application
  Open
  Show           ; we will try to Show Status
define
   Args = {Application.getArgs record(
                'in'(single type:string)
                'out'(single type:string))}  ;; variable names are words
   Status = try
	In={New Open.file init(url:  Args.'in')}
	Out={New Open.file init(name: Args.'out'
        flags:[write create truncate])}
	in
	  local
	      proc { Copy}
	          Str={In read(list:$)}   ;; lhs var name is now a word
	       in
	          if Str=="" then
	             {Out write(vs:Str)} { Copy}
	          end
                     {In close}
                     {Out close}
	       end
	    in
	{ Copy}
    end
               0   ;; this was a missing ZERO as in 'success' ?
                    ;; (given that a ONE follows next on error)
	catch _ then
                    {Show Status}
                    1   ;; any exception is failure -
                        ;; was the file readonly?
	end
{Application.exit Status}     ;; Status remains unknown
end

Now we compile without ARITY issues … but still fail to write a file …

So now to look at file IO.

Hmm. The file io.oz offered for our edification has no error handling.

We try Webget2.oz for local disk files as follows:

functor
import
   Application Open
define
   Args = {Application.getArgs record('in' (single type:string)
                                                'out' (single type:string))}
   Status = try
	In={New Open.file init(name: Args.'in')}
	Out={New Open.file init(name: Args.'out'
        flags:[write create truncate])}
	in
	  local
	      proc { Copy }
	          Str={In read(list:$)}
	       in
	          if Str=="" then
	             {Out write(vs:Str)}
	             { Copy }
	          end
	          {In close}
	          {Out close}
	       end
	    in
	{ Copy }
    end
    0
	catch _ then
		1
	end
{Application.exit Status}
end

Which works great so the issue is reading the URL … It comes up in the browser and Rebol reads it fine as follows:

write %dump.txt “” ; we nix that file
write %dump.txt read http://localhost:8080/perl/get_env.prl

in a Rebol shell. So

if Str\=”" then

must be non-terminating for some URL’s on Win32. So we will read the whole URL first.
Now, how to iterate over a list … and then we start back at Lists and progress to the list module

There is a post at Artima’s Agile Buzz by Cincom VisualWorks’ Jim Robertson on how to load the code for BottomFeeder into a VW Smalltalk 7.5 image (an aggregated source code file, if you will – Smalltalk is not file-based in the way C++ is file-based or the way java packages are file and directory hierarchy-based).

In my case that meant running

I:\vw7.5nc\image>..\bin\win\visual.exe visualnc.im -filein ..\scripts\build-bf-dev.st

The first thing you notice is that dialogs pop-up to request permission to re-load what is already loaded, so we are far from the typical command line for a programming language. That may sound unfair to Smalltalk, but console applications are an important way to salvage legacy Smalltalk code …

Then the whole thing fails when an XML file is not found.

Here are 2 tips.

If you use the non-commercial VisualWorks you will be using the public repository for code, called Store. When you connect to that repository there is no obvious way to save your connection profile. But you must save it and it must be named

cincomsmalltalk

which is not the default nor offered as a default. One way to do this is to arbitrarily flip the string for the user name from ‘guest’ to ‘guest2′ which triggers an enable on the SAVE button. Save. Now flip back to guest. Save again.

Step two. Open a workspace and DO IT on

Store.RepositoryManager open

and save that ConnectionProfile with an EXPORT. Naturally I wanted to save it with my script in my new .scripts directory. But you might naturally save it in the VW home directory. Forget where that is? Open
the System Transcript menu and check. Ah. Exit. Run script from command line.

Ka-boom! Busted agin. And so here Perl gets its due. Perl has @INC which gives you a good shot at finding files much the same as C and INCLUDE and the java classpath ( for which I have Classpath Canuck at Logiquewerks ( for a shameless plug.)

Check my command line. I am in the ./image directory which is the execution path so that is where the ‘repositories.xml’ file must reside.

Now some Smalltalk evil. I move the file. I add a space character to a comment and ACCEPT. Away we go. Why evil? I just changed a method to trick Smalltalk. And not just any method. A public method in a base class. But that is another subject.

Now to get intimate with BottomFeeder …

If you are on Win32, that may mean installing the Minimal GNU toolset or Mingw and run the Msys shell. You may also have to set the env vars CC and CPP to blank if then are set for anything other than gcc.

But even after you have run ./configure and

make

and

make install

you may have an exasperating moment where you ask yourself how to launch the thing…

The usual answer is to place yourself one directory below a directory with a name such as

SomeProject.app

and then run

openapp SomeProject.app

But to my consternation, while this runs fine on my laptop, on my boat anchor it gives a less than informative error about

could not find /gnustep-install-dir … executable/script

The answer ?

openapp ./SomeProject.app

You will almost certainly want to install the ProjectCenter application even with its occasional fatal bugs ( there is bug reporting at the GNU Savannah project ) and the Graphical Object Relationship Modeller (GORM) tool which is the new Interface Builder.

And with applications, if all else fails you can enter the directory and run the name EXE file – provided that you are in an Msys session configured to run GNUstep.

If you make Renaissance, you may have to make some little adjustments.
Start with the GNUstep Msys session.
cd to the Renaissance install.
You will be using Msys make and there is no ./configure to run.
But it may fail even if you set INCLUDE and LIB sensibly. I simply copied

GNUstep.h

from ./Source to ./Source/Markup

When make got down to the Tools build, it failed again. No settings of PATH or LIB helped, so I set the ./Tools GNUmakefile to read


GSMarkupBrowser_GUI_LIBS +=
-L../Source/shared_ob/Renaissance
GSMarkupLocalizableStrings_GUI_LIBS +=
-L../Source/shared_ob/Renaissance


Then make and make install ran clean.

Enjoy!

What does puzzle me is why my crisp JPG from JASC is coming up so ‘lossy’ in this blogpage.

I hope to make the modified source available at when I hear back from the original author.