

Amber Smalltalk 0.10 released - bromagosa
http://amber-lang.net/

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klibertp
Totally awesome!

Some time ago there was a Smalltalk for Java announced - I wasn't particularly
thrilled, because I have nothing to do with Java. This time, however, I'm more
than excited - I'm starting to play with Amber right now!

EDIT: this is getting better with every page I read. It's compiled to JS, so I
expect it to be fast. It supports seamless integration with JS libraries -
it's IDE is written in Amber but with jQuery. It's class library is
simplified, but based on Pharo. It has a Canvas implementation - and I don't
mean <canvas>, but a HTMLCanvas known from Seaside. It's a live, interactive,
clean Smalltalk environment in a browser.

My life just got a bit better and more enjoyable :)

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mprovost
A sentence I never though I'd see 10 (or even 5) years ago: "It's compiled to
JS, so I expect it to be fast."

~~~
klibertp
Haha :) I was thinking "fast in comparison with a Smalltalk virtual machine
implemented in JS" - but you're right in that JS got ridiculously fast
compared to how it was a few years back.

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protomyth
Some example code snippets on the front page couldn't hurt, and please, please
have a downloadable ebook or pdf of your documentation, so I can sit back with
my tablet / e-reader in non-connected situations. Doing a little bit of
targeting to iOS developers given Objective-C's ancestry couldn't hurt.

[edit: Objective-C is a decedent of Smalltalk - I was emphasizing the
connection to be able to draw Objective-C programmers to its roots]

~~~
klibertp
> given Objective-C's ancestry

Wait, what? You mean that Smalltalk is a descendant of Obj-C? That's...
interesting... [EDIT: ok, I misread the parent statement, my bad.]

> Some example code snippets on the front page couldn't hurt

You have a whole system source right there before your eyes. Click on "try in
browser" button, then select a package in the left-most pane, then a class
name in second pane and then method name in rightmost pane. Voila, what you're
reading now is a Smalltalk source for this method.

~~~
bromagosa
I believe, and hope, he meant the opposite :)

~~~
protomyth
Yes, I meant the opposite and looking at it am not real sure how someone would
turn that around.

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mark_l_watson
That is very cool. I played with Amber a few years ago and it seems like the
in-browser experience is better.

Off topic, but I just had some pain moving a small example Ember.js app to the
most recent 1.0rc1, with lots of pain. I have to at least consider that Amber
might be good for writing a fat browser client.

