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VAStGoodies.com security updates

VAStGoodies.com got some security updates:

  • the website is updated to the latest jQuery;
  • the website is now https only;
  • the new version of the client (VAStGoodies.com Tools) uses https too (http will continue to work for older versions of the client) and
  • the new version of the client uses STON, if available. STON is shipped with recent versions of VAST. STON is also available at VAStGoodies.com for older versions of VAST.

It is strongly recommended to update to the latest version. Please let me know if anything got broken.

Share safely!

Posted by Adriaan van Os at 27 June 2020, 5:24 pm with tags VAStGoodies.com, VAST comment link

AWS Support for VA Smalltalk including a Zinc adapter

At the ESUG Conference in Köln we presented (slides, video) StAP, an insurance application largely newly written in VA Smalltalk. Since then we've been working on moving the application to the AWS cloud involving the transition from Windows to Linux. That process is still going on in a so far relatively straightforward manner. At the same time, moving to the cloud brings the need for various new functionalities and utilising Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets is one of them.

We were obviously aware of the works of Jan van de Sandt who created the Pharo AWS Toolbox that includes an implementation of an integration of S3 buckets in Pharo. We decided to give it a go and started trying to port the code to VA Smalltalk.

So, as happens these days, Vince Mecking and I have been pair-programming a couple of afternoons from our respective homes. With Vince in the driver's seat and me doing my part at the other end. My part mostly being offering suggestions, helping to keep focus and dropping distractions. All at (in)appropriate times, you can imagine.

The biggest issue we run into was how to deal with the Zinc dependency. Zinc is the name of the Pharo http stack and it is rather different from what VA Smalltalk offers in this department. Basically we had two options:

  • rewrite all Zinc related code and make future upstream work more difficult or
  • create an adapter to make Zinc-based applications easier to port to VA Smalltalk.

We choose the second option. We made a Zinc client adapter that implements parts of the Zinc client api’s on top of the VA Smalltalk http stack. It does not implement everything what Zinc is capable of, but it does all what is needed to make the S3 bits of the Pharo AWS Toolbox, including the AWS Core part of it, work in VA Smalltalk. This Zinc client adapter can be made more complete for other projects' needs. Currently is has no tests of its own, but depends for it's reliability on the tests of the AWS Core and S3 code.

The code is available at the brand new VAST Community Hub: https://github.com/vast-community-hub/aws-toolbox-vast.

Posted by Adriaan van Os at 14 June 2020, 9:53 pm with tags VAST, VASmalltalk, AWS, Zinc comment link

VAST Community Hub launched

Instantiations just lauched a Tonal-based home for community-made open source software for the VAST Platform (VA Smalltalk). Read about it here: https://github.com/vast-community-hub/getting-started.

Some of my colleagues and myself are involved with one of the launching projects, namely AWS Support for VAST Platform. This is a port of the Pharo AWS Toolbox. It's still a work in progress. More on that in a later post.

Will this be the beginning of the end of the ENVY-based VAStGoodies.com? It certainly could be, but I have no plans to pull the plug on that. What I'm hoping for is that Tonel and the newly launched platform will help narrowing the gap between VAST and the other Smalltalks that make use of Tonel. Or else facilitate to bridge the gap with a shared exchange format.

Posted by Adriaan van Os at 10 June 2020, 10:59 pm with tags VASmalltalk, VAST, Tonel comment link

Photos ESUG Conference 2019 and Smalltalk WebCamp

The photos of the 27th ESUG Conference last year in Köln are finally completed.

27th ESUG Conference, Köln. 2019

And also, photos of the Smalltalk WebCamp in Gent, organised and hosted by Yesplan, are available.

Smalltalk WebCamp

Click the photo's for some more. Enjoy.

Posted by Adriaan van Os at 5 May 2020, 10:04 pm with tags photos, ESUG, Smalltalk, WebCamp comment link

10-Year Anniversary of VAStGoodies.com - 1001 uploads

VAStGoodies.com was launched the 27th of January, 10 years ago now. But not only that, just a few days before that milestone, another milestone was reached: the 1000th upload!

During last ESUG I ported VAStGoodies to VA Smalltalk 9.1, both 32 bit and 64 bit. I hope to roll out the 64 bit version, together with some improvements and fixes, in the coming weeks.

Just this weekend, Mariano Martinez Peck of Instantiations, announced that they are working on support for text-based version control systems like Git. Which is very good news for the VA Smalltalk community. It also makes you think: do we still need VAStGoodies.com 10 years from now?

Posted by Adriaan van Os at 28 January 2019, 10:43 pm with tags VAStGoodies.com, VAST, VASmalltalk 1 comment link
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