[Glass] Basic questions regarding GemBuilder for Smalltalk, GemTools, and tODE

[Richard Sargent]

>> Something that confuses me a lot if all these pieces that seem somehow
related: GemBuilder for Smalltalk, GemTools, and tODE. 
 
That's not surprising, when all is said and done.
GemBuilder is the only truly licensed and supported product - supported by
GemTalk Systems - among those three. GemTools, tODE, and Jade are the work
of individual employees of GemTalk Systems but open sourced to the community
(at least some of them). Additionally, there is Topaz, which one could
consider the GemStone/S command-line interpreter, definitely not an IDE.
 
One of the most important things in GBS is its "traversal buffer" technology
which allows seamless and high performance replication of objects between
the client and the server. This allows one to have the same class defined on
the server and on the client (VW or VA) which some subset of the
functionality defined in the server and some in the client, with the data
being replicated between the two as the client and server processes
interact.
 
Topaz, GemTools, and Jade all allow one to develop against a server. The
latter two provide a GUI similar to the familiar and mostly well-loved
Smalltalk browsers.
 
 
>> I also thought part of GemBuilder was to map certain kernel classes of
the client language to GemStone
 
Not just certain kernel classes, but any classes you wish, including your
application classes. This is important if you want to have a rich
client/server application, not just a server app.
 
>> why would I not need a GemBuilder for Pharo but do need it for VW and VA?
 
It isn't that you don't need a GemBuilder for Pharo, but that we do not have
a commercial product for Pharo. Virtually all of our paying customers have
either VA or VW applications. GemBuilder is an elaborate product, which
requires considerable effort to port to a new environment and to support.
 
 
>> how is tODE related to GemTools?
 
I think the answer to this question is "barely!". tODE is a fascinating
approach to an IDE, hosted in Pharo but with virtually all the work other
than presentation provided in the server. You should refer to Dale's various
conference talks for details on tODE. One of the most important things it
addresses is the difficulty in modifying or subclassing existing browser
classes to add capabilities. Over the years, I have had countless
frustrations while trying to avoid modifying vendor code but adding
features. tODE "deconstructs" the browser, in theory making this much easier
to accomplish.
 
 
I hope this helps answer some of your questions, even if it fails to tell
you what to do. :-)
 
 


  _____  

From: glass-bounces at lists.gemtalksystems.com
[mailto:glass-bounces at lists.gemtalksystems.com] On Behalf Of Mariano
Martinez Peck
Sent: September-30-13 1:48 PM
To: glass at lists.gemtalksystems.com
Subject: [Glass] Basic questions regarding GemBuilder for Smalltalk,
GemTools,and tODE


Hi guys, 

I am evaluating GemStone for a client and I want to give it a try. I have a
very high level idea of GemStone but I never use it for real. The
application I may need to run in GemStone is a Seaside app 3.0 + Magritte3. 

Something that confuses me a lot if all these pieces that seem somehow
related: GemBuilder for Smalltalk, GemTools, and tODE. And I have a few
questions related to these. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. 

>From what I understand, I do need a kind of "GemBuilder for Smalltalk" in
order to connect my client Smalltalk (Pharo in my case) to GemStone. But
there isn't any GemBuilder for Pharo (only VW and VA). I also thought part
of GemBuilder was to map certain kernel classes of the client language to
GemStone, to retrieve objects from GemStone into my smalltalk client
vm..etc.


So..I guess GemTools is a subset of an equivalent "GemBuilder for Pharo"?
What is its relation to the GemBuilder? 
>From what I understand, GemTools offers me some tools to connect to a
GemStone server, load code, execute some code on the server, etc etc etc. I
think I can do more or less the same with Topaz as well. That means that
GemBuilder is optional and I could use Topaz only. If I use Topaz directly,
it means that I don't need any GemBuilder at all for Pharo? If true, how
then it happens that "mapping of certain kernel classes" that I read
somewhere?  in other word, why would I not need a GemBuilder for Pharo but
do need it for VW and VA? Just because there is no UI and all we have is
seaside running? And if I run Seaside in VW then I don't need GemBuilder for
VW?

If I don't need GemBuilder at all, how can I know which classes/methods of
Pharo can I use and which ones I cannot? 

I noticed the GemTools is based on a very very old Pharo image. I guess this
is not a very big problem because I would use that image only to load my
code into GemStone and maybe for other small issues. Still, I will continue
developing my app in Pharo 2.0 and I will keep having my ConfigurationOfXXX
with the proper load for GemStone. Right? 

Anyway...now how is tODE related to GemTools? What does tODE help me
regarding GemStone? Can I use it already or should I still with
GemTools/Topaz for the moment? I searched  in Gemtalk Systems and I found
nothing. 


Thank you very much!

-- 
Mariano
http://marianopeck.wordpress.com


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