[Cuis-dev] [RFC] Namespaces, changes to SystemDictionary, Object and a dictionary class for tracking environment implementations

[Juan Vuletich]

On 10/21/2020 1:08 PM, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
> On 2020-10-07 17:44, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
>> On 2020-10-07 16:07, Juan Vuletich via Cuis-dev wrote:
>>> On 10/7/2020 3:19 AM, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
>>>> On 2020-10-06 21:29, ken.dickey at whidbey.com wrote:
>>>>> On 2020-10-06 08:52, Gerald Klix wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Please bear with me until I can provide a simple example
>>>>>> implementation that handles environments.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gerald,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks much for this quick response.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am not the world's brightest light, so sometimes it takes me a 
>>>>> while to get things.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, apologies for not yet completing my PackageEnvironments 
>>>>> proposal. You are motivating me to get back to it.
>>>>>
>>>>> With so many ways to implement Namespaces/Environments, it is good 
>>>>> to have a number of concrete implementations to explore to 
>>>>> find/get the best outcomes.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am very much looking forward to the fruits of your efforts!
>>>>>
>>>>> Good on ya,
>>>>> -KenD
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Good Morning Ken,
>>>>
>>>> Mentioning your PackageEnvironments approach motivates me to try 
>>>> again explaining ths
>>>> EnvironmentImplementationsDictionary thing:
>>>>
>>>> Suppose we have two packages (or set of packages) that implement 
>>>> environments.
>>>> One is your "package environments (PS) implementation", the other 
>>>> one a simple environment implementation (SE).
>>>> Both implementations should provide
>>>> a so called environment manager singleton,
>>>> that manages their implementation's environments. These managers 
>>>> should be registered with the EnvironmentImplementationsDictionary 
>>>> singleton.
>>>> Of course both must implement the protocol
>>>> demanded by this class.
>>>> This way two our more environment implementations can coexist in 
>>>> one Cuis image.
>>>>
>>>> I tried to implement Juan's (soft) requirement:
>>>> "
>>>> Yes. I want Cuis to be a good place for doing any kinds of 
>>>> experiments. Adding hooks for optional pluggable behavior is a big 
>>>> part of that."
>>>>
>>>> You can look at
>>>> https://gitlab.com/klgcuisstuff/environments/-/blob/master/EnvironmentsBase.pck.st 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> and
>>>>
>>>> https://gitlab.com/klgcuisstuff/environments/-/blob/master/SimpleEnvironments.pck.st 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> to get the details.
>>>> Please don't file these packages in, they are
>>>> currently broken.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> HTH and Best Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Gerald
>>>
>>> If this implies the base image (and people using it) to be aware of 
>>> many possible implementations of environments, and include the 
>>> complexity required to make them work smoothly together, then this 
>>> sounds like too much to me.
>>>
>>> If this is really required, maybe it should go into a 
>>> MultiEnvironmentsImplementationsSupport.pck.st, or such. Maybe 
>>> people working on varios implementations of Environments could get 
>>> together to work on this package. And please, make it require as 
>>> little as possible from the base image. A few methods delegating to 
>>> (most likely absent) optional service is ok. Knowledge of all the 
>>> complexity of MultiEnvironmentsImplementationsSupport.pck.st in the 
>>> base image, is not.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>> Juan,
>>
>> If all works according to my nefarious schemes,
>> the environment implementations should know about Cuis' interfaces 
>> and not the other way around.
>> I started an EnvironmentsBase.pck.st, with the intention to move 
>> everything, which is not strictly required in the base image into it;
>> especially this (in)famous EnvironmentImplementationsDictionary.
>> It contains an abstract super class
>> for an environment manager documenting Cuis' interface to it.
>>
>> In a nutshell: I had the same idea.
>>
>> However some additional changes in
>> ClassDescription>>definition will
>> be necessary (obviously).
>>
>>
>> HTH and Best Regards,
>>
>> Gerald
>
> Good Evening Everyone,
>
> I now have beta of the environment stuff ready.
> Documentation is currently missing (Use the Source, Luke). I will 
> start writing some tomorrow.
>
> The whole thing can be found at:
> https://gitlab.com/klgcuisstuff/environments
>
> If you want to test it just clone this repo.
> File in
> coreChanges/4393-CuisCore-GeraldKlix-2020Oct07-15h40m-KLG.cs.st
> first. Then file in the SimpleEnvironments package. This package 
> contains a very simple
> environment implementation, that is neither aware of package or 
> categories, meaning
> categories and environments are orthogonal
> wrt. simple environments.
> Of course the environment
> framework permits other implementations.
>
>
> Have Fun and Best Regards,
>
> Gerald

coreChanges/4393-CuisCore-GeraldKlix-2020Oct07-15h40m-KLG.cs.st

Over 60kb of code, 76 methods. 1100 lines of code. I'm sorry, but if 
this is the level of impact on the base system that is needed to support 
Environments, another approach is needed. Before resorting to the 
extreme option of forking Cuis, we might think of some kind of alert 
system to warn you if any of the overriden methods gets modifiend in the 
base Cuis image. This could also be useful for other packages that need 
patching existing methods.

Thanks,

-- 
Juan Vuletich
www.cuis-smalltalk.org
https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev
https://github.com/jvuletich
https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-vuletich-75611b3
@JuanVuletich