How Exactly Do You Build A GUI Application in Squeak

Asked 22/12, 2013 at 16:46 Answered 25/12, 2013 at 11:9

All the tools that i searched are 2005 or 2006 and so i dont even dare to try those. I understand that morphic is ok , but i am looking for something like Morphic Designer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmlgU5p4g3o

If you look at this link you will feel all excited and will be tempted to try it out. But unfortunately in todays squeak you cannot even load those mentioned packages. Its a pity. Any help is appreciated.

Baptiste answered 22/12, 2013 at 16:46 Comment(6)

Hi Uko. I am actively in development using pharo. Regarding web app framework Pharo is the best.Better than VW or any other falvours out there. The issue is with Desktop apps. Pharo is better than squeak in that regard,i admit. But not the best option, if u have to build a simple platform independent desktop gui in 4 to 5 days time. To make this a reality Swing is the only option that i am left with(am ok with infact) in that time frame. I belive this discussion may lead to something fruitful. Thanks for responding. I simply love smalltalk and am frustrated to learn some of its hard truths. – Baptiste 22/12, 2013 at 17:24

Could you describe the symptoms? – Rand 22/12, 2013 at 17:31

When truth is spoken out loud, down votes are expected. The open source smalltalk community , which includes me too, have bee busy with "cutting edge rocket science technology". But dont even have a decent UiBuilder. Take this as a food for thought rather than downvoting me. To be frank i dont even care. – Baptiste 22/12, 2013 at 18:51

You are right, but… But are you sure that UI builder is the most important thing? Ruby doesn't have UI builder and is popular as HELL. – Dilettantism 23/12, 2013 at 15:14

@Dilettantism Its about convenience (AKA lazyness) and not to reinvent the wheel every time u decidedes to implement a GUI. I dont know much about Ruby. What i know is it would have been more attractive to normal programmers like myself, looking to create solutions for the layman. Pharo is damn near to be my favourite tool. It will get there soon , it has everything when ur working with seaside. And like my frnd Marcel Taeumel has mentioned, if he can pull it off it would be great. – Baptiste 24/12, 2013 at 6:12

I agree with you completely, but S.O. is not the right venue for this kind of discussion (or any other kind, really). – Protrusile 26/12, 2013 at 16:50

AFAIK the Morphic Designer is currently in a better state than the GsoC project to build a UI designer for spec. It seems to be usable for more complex interfaces, atm. The main issue in making it work with Pharo is probably the use of the signals library. That is somewhat equivalent to Announcements, but it follows QT style. And of course there are differences in which widgets are being used.

The number of actual users seems to be too low. I think HPI should open up their CI for these kinds of projects.

In a discussion on the Pharo Users mailing list some issues and solutions for making Morphic Designer work on Pharo 2.0 and 3.0 are described.

Archean answered 23/12, 2013 at 15:5 Comment(1)

FYI confirmed that Morphic Designer still works in Squeak 5.3 with the latest instructions. Their Monticello repo had some downtime issues for a bit, but seems better now. – Thinkable 17/6, 2021 at 21:23

Have you tried loading the Morphic Designer? If so, how?

https://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/trac/SqueakCommunityProjects/wiki/designer

The Designer should load in Squeak 4.3 and I see no reason that it won't load in 4.4.

If you find issues loading the Designer, pleas let the developer know! I happen to know that Marcel really cares that the designer is usable.

Tinstone answered 22/12, 2013 at 17:36 Comment(7)

In current trunk with a COG VM on MacOSX, note that I have to disable the Preferences enableIPv6. – Rand 22/12, 2013 at 17:51

Also note that I have a warning while loading WidgetSqueakPlatform This package depends on the following classes: UiPlatform You must resolve these dependencies before you will be able to load these definitions: snip... – Rand 22/12, 2013 at 17:57

@Rand Yes UiPlatform it is. Im stuck exactly there. I dont use squeak much. Thats why i had to trouble u guys. Which package should i load the resolve that? – Baptiste 22/12, 2013 at 18:40

@GRThushar but this is not a Squeak problem, the UiPlatform is a class from Hasso Plattner Institut I guess, so it's just that ConfigurationOfDesigner is not up to date w.r.t. package dependency. – Rand 22/12, 2013 at 19:5

@GRThushar We would be delighted if you give us a bug report or at least a transcript output so that we can investigate, reproduce and fix it :) – Tinstone 22/12, 2013 at 19:10

@Tinstone I just tried to file a bug with them and it failed with an error: Trac detected an internal error: ProgrammingError: relation "spamfilter_log" does not exist LINE 1: INSERT INTO spamfilter_log (time,path,author,authenticated,i... – Sanctity 18/6, 2014 at 0:42

@Sanctity Thanks for letting me know, I just fixt that. Please go forth and try again. Sorry for the inconvenience. – Tinstone 18/6, 2014 at 8:46

The development version of the Morphic Designer works fine in Squeak 4.4 as I use it frequently for my research:

(Installer mc http: 'http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/squeaksource/')
    project: 'MetacelloRepository';
    install: 'ConfigurationOfDesigner'.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfDesigner) loadDevelopment.
UiDesigner open.

As you may have noticed, this will bootstrap Metacello and also load Signals, Animations and Widgets into your image. I am using the latest build of the CogVM.

I started to port it (Widgets & Designer) to Pharo 2.0. However, Pharo 2.0 is not fully supported yet.

Lietman answered 23/12, 2013 at 19:13 Comment(1)

Good luck to you. Also i remember sometimes back , Pharo had the Designer working in it. I am not sure if it was Pharo or Squeak. cant remember. Anyway, Thanks already for trying. – Baptiste 24/12, 2013 at 6:14

Finally i could open the UiDesigner.

Im not sure if i am all0wed to use this in my personal projects. as @aka.nice ponted out this dont belong to the squeak community, rather it belongs to Hasso Plattner Institut. Correct me if i am wrong. Anyway i belive since i was able to get it, i can use it too. So ppl looking for Morphic Designer/ UiDesigner/ GUI in Smalltalk/Squeak can get it this way. WARNING - this is - as of 23/12/2013. This may change without prior notice and that u will have to look for other alternatives to get this.

Also id like to see this in pharo too. I had asked this question to the pahro community some months before. At that time i managed with glamour.

(Installer monticello http:'http://seaside.gemtalksystems.com/ss')
project: 'metacello';
install: 'ConfigurationOfMetacello'. 
((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfMetacello) project 
  latestVersion) load.



(Installer mc http: 'http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/squeaksource/')
   project: 'MetacelloRepository';
   install: 'ConfigurationOfWidgets'.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfWidgets) load.


(Installer mc http: 'http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/squeaksource/')
   project: 'MetacelloRepository';
   install: 'ConfigurationOfDesigner'.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfDesigner) load.. 

UiDesigner open

Baptiste answered 22/12, 2013 at 19:58 Comment(1)

Nice that it loads now. Be sure you can use the Designer, it is under MIT license :) – Tinstone 23/12, 2013 at 14:55

Spec is an easy-to-use framework for building GUIs. It's not as easy as a GUI builder though. If you want to learn more, there are plenty of examples in Pharo itself a small tutorial at

Thallium answered 25/12, 2013 at 11:9 Comment(1)

UPDATE: spec.st It has some examples on and it is a great place to start with spec. Enjoy!! – Baptiste 31/3, 2014 at 7:58

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