Hi Hilaire, GT is essentially a project that takes the relevant parts of Moose and make them applicable to plain Pharo. Pharo ships with only the core tools, but the complete configuration of GT also brings with it Roassal and a couple of other goodies. There are still more interesting things in Moose, but you can get quite far with only GT.
About your particular question, it’s true that Pharo does not have static types, but that does not make it harder to understand. Only different. The first thing to realize is that Pharo is not about code, but about objects. That is why my advice is to not try too long to understand Pharo code statically because this is not where the power of Pharo is. You are in a much better position to understand a system when it’s running. So, the tools that I use the most are the inspector when I need to understand structural relationships or contracts between objects, and the debugger when I need to understand some algorithmic steps. Even when I look for code structure patterns, I mostly use the inspector because it allows me to query. Then you augment these tools with custom views and you get quite far. I know this sounds abstract, but I am practicing this since several years and I still find it amazing. I tried to provide a hint of how it works in the ESUG 2016 talk. Cheers, Doru > On Jan 9, 2017, at 2:02 PM, Hilaire <hila...@drgeo.eu> wrote: > > Hello Doru, > > I am curious. > Yesterday I had a look to MessageBrowser, and realize I understand > nothing of it. I saw there is a mix of SpecXXX, models, Navigation > browser, Announcement, etc, then I knew I will have to spend a lot of > time browsing (multiple window again) to understand a bit how these > objects are related, and may be be able to change it in the way I want. > Does the Moose & al tools could help me understand code I don't know about? > > Given the fact Pharo/Smalltalk are not typed makes it harder for code > analysis, don't you? > > Happy new year to you too. > > Hiaire > > Le 09/01/2017 à 10:30, Tudor Girba a écrit : >> Happy New Year, everyone! >> >> Over the last year, I went through a rather extensive tour and I directly >> exposed Moose, GT and Pharo to some 2000+ technical people through various >> sessions and trainings at conferences and companies. The tour will continue >> this year. >> >> Most of the sessions are not directly about Moose, GT or Pharo, but about >> broader topics that are served through what we do around here. These topics >> can relate to solving problems without reading code, to steering agile >> architecture, or more recently, to even broader topics like software >> environmentalism. If you are wondering what software environmentalism is, >> please take a look at this talk: >> https://youtu.be/N3l3eB62oSw?list=PLqvTNJtc942Cs9Qo4ikCGrUNtAw93Q0JA >> >> I now have the confirmation that there is a whole space which is unaddressed >> by mainstream technologies. Often people find themselves frustrated having >> to build their systems on top of opaque technologies with not much hope of >> understanding what is going on under the hood both because they do not have >> access to what is behind and because they are provided lack the tools to >> investigate. You see, developers are suppose to have the coolest job on the >> planet, and many of them are unhappy. This has to change, and we can do that. >> >> In a conversation I had with a highly respected researcher, after explaining >> how our tools allow us to work, he noted reluctantly “so, you are claiming >> that you are practicing a fundamentally different software engineering?”. >> This question took me a little by surprise because the only answer I found >> myself being able to provide was “yes”. I sent him this talk: >> https://youtu.be/XWOOJa3kEa0?list=PLqvTNJtc942Cs9Qo4ikCGrUNtAw93Q0JA >> >> It is strange to be in the position to tell the world that we are >> constructing something fundamentally better, but I really do believe that we >> are. >> >> I wish you a happy and bold new year! >> >> Cheers, >> Doru >> > > -- > Dr. Geo > http://drgeo.eu -- www.tudorgirba.com www.feenk.com "If you can't say why something is relevant, it probably isn't."
