95 pointsby xkriva114 hours ago13 comments
  • lynndotpy2 hours ago
    I played around with Pharo some time in 2017 or 2018, making a Minesweeper clone in it.

    I really _really_ like environments where rapid and immediate iteration is possible, especially for any project with any artistry or exploration in its construction. One thing is that (in some cases) you see intermediate, emergent, or unintended results you'd not have seen otherwise.

    Although not a particularly interesting unintended result, a logic problem (iirc) had the Minesweeper expand happen with each action (i.e. propagating cleared cells with each step rather than in an instant).

  • ajasmin3 hours ago
    Nice!

    So I assume this is the byte code interpreter compiled with Emscriptem? Didn’t Squeak have a similar try it out page?

    I would assume there’s no attempt at Jitting or pre-compiling some of the image code, which would be a feat given Smalltalk dynamic nature and webassembly limited execution model.

    I was hopping to have something like this to play with. How can you build the code?

  • Cieric2 hours ago
    I've never used Pharo before, but in my firefox it renders up and to the left too much. I'm not sure how the mouse is translated to the canvas but it seems like there is an issue with it (or vice versa and it's the weird canvas scaling). Removing `transform: scale(calc(1 / var(--world-dpr, 1)));` from the canvas css seems to fix it for me though.
  • mike_ivanovan hour ago
    How come it is much snappier and uses less CPU than the same native version? I honestly don't understand how this is possible.
    • bmacho36 minutes ago
      Snappy? It's slow as molass here, e.g. file viewer needs half a second to preview a text file.
  • simonsarris3 hours ago
    I was hoping it was the 1999 video game alas
    • nathell3 hours ago
      That one's spelled Pharaoh.
  • AdmiralAsshat3 hours ago
    Neat concept for playing with Pharo...but doesn't having it in the browser kinda defeat the purpose?
    • Qeman hour ago
      Nice for those trying it from locked down machines. It's a common situation people spending most of their screen time on computers where the user has no admin privileges.
  • simultsop4 hours ago
    I wandered about this a while ago, when VSCode went into Web. Later, after realizing how much download had to take place to have a remote OS ran, again the experience is very hacky with current hardware to software friction. It needs lots of drivers and resources to align experience with an actual OS.
  • 4 hours ago
    undefined
  • popcar23 hours ago
    It seems to break when zooming in/out on Firefox (Linux). Zooming in reduces the size of the viewport and makes clicking the mouse happen somewhere else.
  • treyd4 hours ago
    This webapp seems to break the back button on Android.
    • stronglikedan4 hours ago
      It never goes forward, so there's nothing to go back to, even on Chrome for Windows.
  • thrancean hour ago
    Hijacked my back button on Android/FireFox...
  • enoch_hou2 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • rvz4 hours ago
    Obviously this post has been boosted quickly and mysteriously in 16 mins and it feels quite premature and it doesn't even look remarkable at all.

    Use with caution.

    • lynndotpy2 hours ago
      I upvoted it because I have fond feelings and memories of Pharo. The warm fuzzies aside, even if someone hasn't used it, it's one of those places that remind us of the delight of programming and computation. Like, "Oh, yeah, I used to feel optimistic and happy about the Computer when I was programming in basic a thousand years ago."
    • xkriva114 hours ago
      As the author of this post, I have to say that I, too, was surprised by how well it's doing. But people at HN are generally very receptive to Lisp/Smalltalk posts, and lately, at least one Smalltalk-related post has appeared on the front page every week.
      • 3 hours ago
        undefined
      • DTrejo3 hours ago
        Great post! Doing anything with moose? Looking forward to a post :)
        • xkriva113 hours ago
          I only did the post on HN, not the project ;)
    • echelon4 hours ago
      It's Pharo, which has a small but loving community.

      Several of my friends love it.

      • da023 hours ago
        What do they use it for?
        • jrootabega3 hours ago
          BESIDES European conference presentations. Seriously, that's all I can ever seem to find.