Self-interest September 2013

self-interest@lists.selflanguage.org

7 participants
16 discussions

Improving Linux Font Support
by Chris Double 30 Sep '13

30 Sep '13

As I've mentioned in a previous email to the list, I've been working on Xft support for Linux as a way to get nicer rendered fonts. So far I have the Xft primitives implemented so that you can render Xft fonts using the API. I don't yet have it hooked up with the Self font system to display in the outliners though. I'm not sure if I'll get time to work on that over the next couple of weeks so I've made the current progress available on github in case anyone wants to hack on it: <http://github.com/doublec/self/tree/linux_fonts> Clone with: $ git clone git://github.com/doublec/self $ cd self $ git checkout -b linux_fonts origin/linux_fonts The steps I take to display a font using the primitives are: 1) Create this object, drag it to the desktop and open an evaluator on it: (| parent* = traits oddball. window <- desktop w anyWindowCanvas. draw <- nil. font <- nil. xftcolor <- nil. xrcolor <- nil. |) 2) In the evaluator of the above object, create a draw object: draw: window display xftDrawCreate: window platformWindow Visual: window display screen defaultVisualOfScreen Colormap: window display screen defaultColormapOfScreen 3) Create the color objects: xftcolor: xlib xftColor new. xrcolor: xlib xRenderColor new. 4) Set the alpha of the xRenderColor: xrcolor alpha: 16rffff 5) Set the xftColor: window display xftColorAllocValue: window display screen defaultVisualOfScreen Colormap: window display screen defaultColormapOfScreen RenderColor: xrcolor XftColor: xftcolor 6) Load a font: font: window display xftFontOpenNameOnScreen: window display screen number Name: 'verdana-18' 7) Display a string using the given font: draw xftDrawString8: xftcolor Font: font X: 100 Y: 100 String: 'Hello World!' I've added support to the cmake files to look for Xft and Freetype. It works on my system but I'm not entirely sure it's accurate. Any thoughts on how best to plug this into the Self font system? Chris. -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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primitiveMaker and proxies
by Chris Double 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

I'm attempting to add some types and functions to xlibTemplates.self. It took me a while to understand how some things work and am hopeful that someone can help me see if I'm on the right path. I'm adding a type, 'XftFont' and some functions that operate on it. In xlib_glue.cpp I added the 'template(XftFont). In xlibTemplates.self I added a test accessor: traits: traits xlib xftFont visibility: publicSlot XftFont ascent = int getMember ascent For this to work I needed to add a 'traits xlib xftFont' object in my world. Running the template script successfully added the 'ascent' method to the trait so I think I understand that area ok. Next step was to add a method to the template that created an XftFont object: Display xftFontOpenOnScreen: int \ Name: string \ = XftFont {xlib xftFont deadCopy} \ call XftFontOpenName canAWS I see some template definitions use something like: = proxy XftFont* XftFont_seal \ {xlib xftFont deadCopy} \ call XftFontOpenName canAWS Are 'proxy XftFont* XftFont_seal' and 'XftFont' funtionally equivalent? When would you use one over the other? I'm using 'string' in the definition. Other templates use 'string_null' and 'string_len_null'. What's the difference? For this definition to work I needed to have an 'xlib xftFont' object in the world. I struggled to find out how to create one of these that worked but eventually I found that I needed to: 1) Create an object that is a 'copy down' parent of 'proxy' using 'deadCopy' as the selector and ommitting 'parent'. This can be done by changing the attributes of an object or using 'Subclass Me' from the middle click menu of 'proxy'. 2) Change the 'parent' slot of the object to be 'traits xftFont' I created earlier. If I didn't do (1) above and instead just 'copy' the 'proxy' object and change the parent slot then the foreign function calls would fail with a type error. Once I did these steps and rebuilt the VM plus world then calling the function gave me an XftFont object I could inspect, success! I notice that most of the slots in 'xlib' have 'dead 'or 'alive' in the name. My 'xlib xftFont' object didn't have this until I set 'Complete' to 'Yes' in the attributes. What does 'Complete' mean? Does the above sound right for integrating a new foreign object and functions into the VM? -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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Self on OS X 10.8
by Chris Double 23 Sep '13

23 Sep '13

I tried the Self download for OS X on selflanguage.org but hit some problems and am wondering if I'm doing something wrong. The download page [1] mentions a 'Self' script being installed in /usr/bin but I don't see it after installing. I also needed to download and install XQuartz as OS X 10.8 doesn't include the X11 app. Once XQuartz was installed the Self snapshot ran. Love the look and the fonts compared to the Linux version! The two finger scrolling on the trackpad for vertically and horizontally scrolling the world is also fantastic. I tried dragging a label morph from the morph factory to the main self window and I couldn't drag it outside the bounds of the morph factory window. Is this broken in the latest version? [1] http://selflanguage.org/download/index.html -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

3 2

Fix for property sheet error from not finding labelMorph font
by Chris Double 21 Sep '13

21 Sep '13

I've done a pull request to fix an issue with requesting a property sheet from a labelMorph on Linux giving an error: <https://github.com/russellallen/self/pull/17> This relates to issue 4 but I think that issue is actually a Mac OS X backend problem. Can anyone confirm if on Mac OS X that the scalableFont slot doesn't exist? I'm guessing the Mac backend doesn't use x11Globals? -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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Fullscreen support on X11 backends
by Chris Double 19 Sep '13

19 Sep '13

I've implemented the ability to switch to fullscreen mode in X11 backends. I've tested on Ubuntu 12.10 and it seems to work fine. The pull request is here: <https://github.com/russellallen/self/pull/16> This provides a 'toggleFullscreen' method on the xWindowCanvas. Sending this message will enter or exit fullscreen mode. In fullscreen mode the window decorations are removed and the window takes up the entire screen area, covering any window manager panels, etc. A followup from this would be to find the right place to put 'fullscreen' in the right place for the non-platform dependent backends and implement it for the Mac OS X backend. To enter fullscreen mode froma desktop in X11 you can do: desktop w winCanvases first toggleFullscreen Calling it again will exit. Fullscreen mode removes window decorations, expands the window to the maximum size of the screen and displays on top of any panels, docks, etc provided by the OS. It's a good mode for kiosk applications or maxiimising the screen real estate. Anyone want to tackle the Mac OS X side of it? Where would be a good place in th UI2 hierarchy to place a generic 'fullscreen' method? -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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Fixes for 'pep', the Java VM in Self
by Chris Double 18 Sep '13

18 Sep '13

I've done a pull request with some bitrot fixes for 'applications/pep': <https://github.com/russellallen/self/pull/14> These changes allow loading some Java class files that have been compiled with recent JVM's. Simple test cases work but I've been unable to get java.lang.System.out to work. This seems to require calling 'initializeSystemClass' and I've added this where I think it should go but I get an infinite loop when using it. I'm still debugging this but thought I'd make what works at the moment available. When testing, ensure that before starting Self you have your CLASSPATH environment variable set to the location of the Java class library .class files and the 'objects/applications/pep' directory. Something like: export CLASSPATH=/home/me/self/objects/applications/pep:/home/me/jvm/classes' I obtained the Java library classes by extracting the contents of 'rt.jar' from a local java installation. To test 'SimpleTest1' and 'SimpleTest2' make sure they're compiled: cd objects/applications/pep javac SimpleTest1 javac SimpleTest2 To load 'pep' in self: bootstrap read: 'pep' From: 'applications/pep' To test SimpleTest1 and SimpleTest2: pep tests testSimpleTest1 pep tests testSimpleTest1 To test an arbitary Java class file: pep tests testClassNamed: 'Foo' To view loaded classes and drill down to see their methods and converted Self code, etc: pep loadedClasses class_java_lang_System Chris. -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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Debugging in the presence of error blocks
by Chris Double 18 Sep '13

18 Sep '13

I'm having issues with debugging and wonder if anyone as any tips. When running code that uses error blocks, like this: doSomething: 'something' IfFail: [|:e| error: e ] If the method has an error and calls the error block in IfFail then the debugger pops up with a stack that stops at the line where the error blocks is created (ie. the one above). It doesn't show a stack inside 'doSomething:IfFail:' where the error actually occured. Is there a way to recover this information? At the moment if I run some Self code that deep inside internals it does an [|:e| error: e] block then I lose the context of where the error actually occured and only get the context of where it is handled. -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

3 3

Fixing javaClient/javaServer for world sharing
by Chris Double 17 Sep '13

17 Sep '13

I've created a pull request that gets javaClient and javaServer working for me: <https://github.com/russellallen/self/pull/12> It fixes minor bitrot. I've described how to get it working, with a screencast, here: <http://bluishcoder.co.nz/2013/09/16/multiple-users-in-a-self-world.html> I'd really like to see an HTML/JavaScript version of the Java client to move away from applets. It'd make a fun project and demo I think. It would also help reduce the reliance on X11 for screen sharing so if a move is made towards doing a non-X11 backend that functionality is still possible. With regards to a non-X11 backend I was wondering if SDL2 would be a good option. It provides hardware acceleration cross platform and works on Android as well as Windows. Chris. -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

2 1

Interrupting the UI
by Chris Double 17 Sep '13

17 Sep '13

Sometimes I do something silly like expand the 'indexable' slot in an outliner on a vector of thousands of elements. This locks up the UI and the console for quite a long time as it builds the outliner for all the elements in the vector. Is there a way to cancel or interrupt this operation? Or a way to make it not blocking? -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

1 0

Bignum performance
by Chris Double 15 Sep '13

15 Sep '13

Bignum performance in Self seems to be quite slow. Executing 1000 factorial on my laptop gives the following: [ 1000 factorial ] time => 2228 On similar JIT'd languages that support bignums I get subsecond results. Implementing similar to factorial to use '+' instead of '*' to ensure that no bignums are created I get: [ 1000 foo ] time => 0 Where 'foo' is a method on 'traits integer': <= 1 ifTrue: 1 False: [ + predecessor foo ] Has anyone got ideas on what the performance hit might be caused by? Chris. -- http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz

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Self-interest September 2013