22/09/2009

No, seriously, XMPP really does rock!

As you can see from Peter's comment on my previous post, the XMPP integration is really cool. However, it is also something that one has to experience to really understand.

I added the app to the chat window in my gmail account. The app instantly appeared as being online. I typed in a few messages and they either controlled windows, or wrote to the transcript.

Now, clearly this is not some huge theoretical breakthrough in computer science, but for end users this is amazing. I could build a simple web site for e.g. brainstorming ideas, and ask people to add the app to their buddy list. I could broadcast a message from the app, asking for ideas about xyz, and moments later their responses would come straight back into the app. From there it would be trivially simple to split them off, write them to a google spreadsheet etc.etc.

What this is doing is putting some really powerful collaboration tools in the hands of people who really don't need to know much about programming at all. Fantastic :-)

XMPP Rocks

While I was playing with the GWT system, the contents of one of the windows suddenly changed to 'XMPP rocks!'. I assume that Peter had sent a jabber message to the server, and the client has - almost - instantly updated that respective window.

I think this is hugely exciting. It makes me think of all sorts of new ways of working with web apps.

Undeclared variables are global in GWT

Yes, I know this is a statement of the obvious - particularly given that it is really javascript that is executing, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

I was looking at the startup method Object >> helloWorld, when I suddenly realised that a number of the variables - that were holding windows - were not declared in the method. I opened a workspace and tried sending them messages. Sure enough, it worked.

I am gradually beginning to work out how to play with the system :-)

GWT Smalltalk becomes colourful

GWT Smalltalk is moving along in leaps and bounds. It now supports the user creation of multiple class browser windows - pretty useful for coding! - and also setting the css for elements.

At the moment one can't save code between browser refreshes, but that is coming soon. The bits I am really waiting for are:

  1. the ability to define HTML form and input elements e.g. text boxes

  2. The link to BigTable, so that I can read and write data



Couple that with the ability to define the startup method, and we have the beginnings of a really interesting tool

21/09/2009

GWT Smalltalk

And, all of a sudden, I am back :-)

Peter Fisk, who some of you may remember developed the Vista Smalltalk system, is also back. This time he has created a version of Smalltalk that runs in the browser. It looks very promising, particularly because it is designed to integrate with Google Wave.

If you are interested, please visit the demo site, which is here