You need to think outside the box, Claude knows more about Smalltalk than you might think...

[johnmci]

❯ /smalltalk

⏺ Smalltalk development mode active. I have access to the live Squeak 6.0 image via the squeakDirect MCP server.

Let me verify the connection.

⏺ squeakDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "Smalltalk version")
⎿  'Squeak6.0'

⏺ Connected to Squeak 6.0. Ready for Smalltalk tasks - evaluate code, browse classes, define methods, etc.

What would you like to do?

❯ can you write me some smalltalk to get the running process names?

⏺ squeakDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "Process allInstances collect: [:p | p name]")
⎿  #('67741' '38564' '46226' '83688' 'the finalization process' '92429: the child OSProcess watcher' '59185' '20830' '63501' '80225' 'the finalization process' '44108: the child OSProcess watcher' 'MCP Server' '59993')

⏺ That shows all process instances, but many have default numeric names. Here's a more informative version showing priority and state:

⏺ squeakDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "(Process allInstances \n select: [:p | p isTerminated not]\n thenCollect: [:p | \n '{1} (priority {2})' format: {p name. p priority}])\n sorted")
⎿ #('20830 (priority 60)' '38564 (priority 80)' '44108: the child OSProcess watcher (priority 40)' '59185 (priority 60)' '59993 (priority 30)' '63501 (priority 60)' '67741 (priority 40)' '80225 (priority 10)' 'MCP Server
(priority 30)' 'the finalization process (priority 51)')

⏺ Better. The named processes are:

• MCP Server (priority 30) - the server handling our requests
• the finalization process (priority 51) - weak reference cleanup
• the child OSProcess watcher (priority 40) - monitors child processes

The numeric ones are likely UI event handlers or scheduled tasks. Here's a version that identifies common system processes:

⏺ squeakDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "| results |\nresults := OrderedCollection new.\nProcess allInstances do: [:p |\n p isTerminated ifFalse: [\n results add: (Dictionary new\n at: #name put: p
name;\n at: #priority put: p priority;\n at: #state put: (p isBlocked ifTrue: ['blocked'] ifFalse: [\n p isSuspended ifTrue: ['suspended'] ifFalse:
['runnable']]);\n yourself)]].\nresults sorted: [:a :b | (a at: #priority) > (b at: #priority)]")
⎿ an OrderedCollection(a Dictionary(#name->'38564' #priority->80 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'63501' #priority->60 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'20830' #priority->60 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionar
y(#name->'59185' #priority->60 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'the finalization process' #priority->51 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'44108: the child OSProcess watcher' #priority->40 #state->'blocke
d' ) a Dictionary(#name->'67741' #priority->40 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'59993' #priority->30 #state->'blocked' ) a Dictionary(#name->'MCP Server' #priority->30 #state->'runnable' ) a Dictionary(#name->'
80225' #priority->10 #state->'runnable' ))

⏺ Summary of running processes (sorted by priority):
┌──────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────┐
│ Priority │ Name │ State │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 80 │ (UI event loop) │ blocked │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 60 │ (multiple) │ blocked │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 51 │ finalization process │ blocked │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 40 │ OSProcess watcher │ blocked │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 30 │ MCP Server │ runnable │
├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 10 │ (background) │ runnable │
└──────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────┘
Priority levels in Squeak:

• 80 = high I/O priority (UI events)
• 60 = user interrupts
• 50 = timingPriority
• 40 = user scheduling
• 30 = user background
• 10 = system background

[johnmci]

❯ This question is for the cuisDirect mcp 'can you write me some smalltalk to get the running process names?'

⏺ cuisDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "Process allInstances collect: [:p | p name]")
⎿  #('Startup process' 'Morphic UI' '[system] Delay Scheduling' '[system] Low Space Watcher' '[system] User interrupt watcher' '[system] Event Tickler' 'Idle Process' '[system] Ephemeron finalization')

⏺ Cuis has more descriptive names by default. Here's the detailed view:

⏺ cuisDirect - smalltalk_evaluate (MCP)(code: "(Process allInstances \n select: [:p | p isTerminated not]\n thenCollect: [:p | \n '{1} (priority {2})' format: {p name. p priority}])\n sorted")
⎿ #('Idle Process (priority 10)' 'Startup process (priority 79)' '[system] Delay Scheduling (priority 80)' '[system] Ephemeron finalization (priority 50)' '[system] Event Tickler (priority 60)' '[system] Low Space Watche
r (priority 65)' '[system] User interrupt watcher (priority 75)')

⏺ Cuis running processes (sorted by priority):
┌──────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ Priority │ Name │ Purpose │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 80 │ [system] Delay Scheduling │ Timer/delay management │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 79 │ Startup process │ Main UI process │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 75 │ [system] User interrupt watcher │ Cmd+. handling │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 65 │ [system] Low Space Watcher │ Memory monitoring │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 60 │ [system] Event Tickler │ UI event polling │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 50 │ [system] Ephemeron finalization │ Weak reference cleanup │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ 10 │ Idle Process │ Runs when nothing else to do │
└──────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
Cuis names its processes descriptively by default, unlike Squeak which uses numeric hash IDs for many. Note there's no MCP Server process listed - in Cuis the MCP server runs in the main image process via StdIOReadStream
rather than a forked background process.

[johnmci]

ChatGPT is coming, later tonight, but a sneak preview

You: can you show me the processes running in my squeak image

Assistant: Here are the processes currently running in your Squeak Smalltalk image:

1. A process waiting on a Delay>>wait.
2. A process handling timer events (Delay class>>handleTimerEvent).
3. Several processes in termination (Process>>terminate).
4. The finalization process handling object finalization.
5. OSProcess watchers (for managing and communicating with OS-level processes).
6. The user interrupt watcher, listening for system interrupts (EventSensor>>userInterruptWatcher).
7. A low space watcher to monitor memory usage (SmalltalkImage>>lowSpaceWatcher).
8. The idle process which manages CPU time when no other processes are running (ProcessorScheduler class>>idleProcess).
9. An MCP Server process which could relate to network or other asynchronous processing.
10. Processes handling asynchronous input/output events (AioEventHandler).

Each of these plays a role in the management, communication, or event handling within your Squeak environment. If you're interested in a particular process or management aspect, feel free to ask!