I have an iPad 6 (model A1893 if anyone cares). Will Pharo run on that device? How much storage do I need to install Pharo on this iPad? (And TestFlight itself.) I've never heard of the test store before; could the README in GitHub be extended with instructions about how to install the beta?
If you had infinite time and I had money to pay for it ... it would be nice to have a binding for Core Motion. But having Pharo on the iPad? Huge thanks. On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 at 02:19, Aaron Wohl via Pharo-users < [email protected]> wrote: > Pharo 13 for iPad in the test Apple Store (open in the Apple TestFlight > app); > Phone or Mac https://testflight.apple.com/join/kGmPQFr9 > Due to Apple’s no JIT, it's not snappy. But maybe it's still useful? > Source https://github.com/avwohl/iospharo about 100K lines of new source > code. > > This is my first venture into using Pharo. I could use advice on where > this project fits in Pharo/Smalltalk land. In the early 80s, I used the > Xerox Parc Alto at Carnegie Mellon to run Smalltalk. I got laid off, went > on a cruise, sat down in a beach chair with LEARN PHARO and an iPad. But, > no Pharo for iPad. So I did the natural thing and told Claude Code to port > Pharo to iPad. 54 days and 1347 commits later, out popped a usable iPad > app. I do have a background in compilers, working on the Production > Quality Compiler project at CMU in the early 1980s, mostly on lexers. But > I didn’t write any code for this. I mostly told CLAUDE a few times a day > stop doing workarounds, do what the real VM does, and that’s a workaround. > CLAUDE would never have succeeded I think if I hadn’t started insisting a > focus on getting the test suite to pass rather than the app to work. > > The main snag using the real VM was encoding the encoding of type info in > the high bits of pointers for immediate types. It seemed simple to me to > shift the type info to the low 3 bits. But Claude could not get the real > VM to stop looking in the high bits; perhaps I should have pushed harder on > that. But I had always heard how easy it was to port Smalltalk, so I just > went with a new VM with the type info in the low bits. Loading a standard > image translates the addresses. > The other issue was that Apple forbids JIT on iPad. So this new VM has no > JIT. > Issues: > - Should this be a separate VM? Should I push harder on getting the > standard VM to work with type info in the low bits and no JIT? Even if > that would be better, is it worth the bother now that this works? > > - I don’t want to suck up the PharoSmalltalk name in the Apple stores if > it causes offense. I can call it VibeTalk or something to leave the name > free for a hand-coded version. Or move off the name if a real contender > ever shows. > > - Without JIT, is it too slow to bother releasing? Is there some other > optimization that could bridge the gap if it is too slow? > > - Are there any users who can give the iPad version a really good workout > in real work? The VM passes the test suite. But it just started working > on the iPad today. There will be UI issues. > > - On the iphone the menu bar is cut off, and the welcome window is mostly > off the screen. The menu bar layout is in the image, not the VM. I am not > sure the VM should work around it. Should these be fixed in the image to > have a multi-line menu bar as needed, and reshape initial window layouts on > phones? If so is anyone willing to do the Smalltalk side or help me do it > (I have written mostly other languages) >
