Pharo2VW

It is a library to reliably export code from Pharo to Visualworks.

Produce from Pharo code, loaded in the image, a .st file. The produced file is ready to be loaded by VisualWorks, BeeSmalltalk, and probably other Smalltalk dialect.

Prerequisites

You will need pharo6 up and visualworks 7.4 up

Installing

In pharo playground execute the next piece of code

Metacello new
	baseline: 'Pharo2VW';
	repository: 'github://ObjectProfile/Pharo2VW/src';
	load.

Getting Started

In your playground execute the next piece of code

Pharo2VW exporter
	namespace: 'MySpaceInVW';
	package: 'Pharo2VW';
	export.

This will create file MySpaceInVW.st in your pharo working directory. The file contains is an xml format that visualworks can open to load source code.

In the next example try to change the output directory with the selector: directory:, or define the external namespaces that your software needs to run. Also you can define what methods of your package tags, you do not want to export.

Pharo2VW exporter
	directory: FileSystem disk workingDirectory/'exports';
	namespace: 'MySpaceInVW';
	externalNamespaces: {'Roassal2'};
	methodsBlacklist: {Pharo2VWExamples >> #exampleExportRoassalWithoutSomeMethods};
	package: 'Pharo2VW';
	export.

Visualworks do not have the same array notation for {}. But do not worry this exporter export this {'A'} in this order (Array new: 1) at: 1 put: 'A'

Loading the file in VisualWorks

After you get the file MySpaceInVW.st you can load it into a visualworks image

1. In this example, create a bundle called MyBundle, and add the package MyPackage in that bundle
2. For MyPackage, rightclick then select the option File into....
3. Select the file MySpaceInVW.st and load it.
4. If you get some error loading the file. Delete the loaded code, and fix the problem in pharo. (Common errors: your code have some pharo things, etc )
5. At this point your code is loaded in visualworks all classes in the same package. Probably now you need the classes have the same package organization. In that case try to use the next piece of code.

| main classes cat pkg |
main := Registry bundleNamed: 'MyBundle'.
classes := main allClasses.
packages := Dictionary new.
classes do: [ :cls |  
	cat := cls myClass category asString.
	pkg := packages at: cat ifAbsentPut: [ | p |
		p := Registry packageNamedOrCreate: cat.
		main addItem: p.
		p ].
	XChangeSet current moveWholeClass: cls toPackage: pkg

6. Run the tests, you need to have many tests to ensure that you code works well in Visualworks like in pharo
7. In some cases you will need code that not exists in pharo. In that case you can create class extentions. In this example maybe we need to have a particular method of Color from pharo in ColorValue the color class in visualworks. So we can create an extention.
8. Create the package MyPackage-extentions then rightclick in the class area, and select add class extention for class ColorValue. With extentions you can add or override existing methods in visualworks, please try to avoid overrides in visualworks.
9. In case that you need a different class of visualworks like DateAndTime in pharo, but for visualworks that class is Timestamp. Maybe you will need a class Platform in order to idenfify when your system is running in pharo or in visualworks, to use the correct classes. For this example we can use ExamplePlatform current getJSONClass. The method current will return the current smalltalk platform. In pharo we can create the class PharoExamplePlatform as subclass of ExamplePlatform and this class can define the method getJSONClass. By other hand in visualworks we can define the similar class VWExamplePlatform.
10. In case that you need to update your code. You will need to delete all the code and packages(except extentions) and load the process again. For that case use this example script.

| b notremove |
notremove := OrderedCollection new.
notremove add: 'MyPackage-extentions'.
b := Registry bundleNamed: 'MyBundle'.
b leafItems do: [ :pkg | 
  (notremove includes: pkg name) ifFalse: [
		pkg doUnloadFromImage.
]. 

11. In visualworks check that your source code do not have refereces to undefined objects, you can check this in you bundle tab Prerequisites
12. At this points, you have correct extentions, your classes are in the correct package, your tests are green, and you do not have references to undefined objects. Now you can upload you code to the public repository. Finally last point is check the bundle load order. you can see that in Bundle Structure tab. Try you use the next example to set the load order of your packages.

b := Registry bundleNamed: 'MyBundle'.
list := b containedItems.
r := list select: [:d | d name = 'MyPackage-extentions'].
list remove: r first.
list add: r first.
b containedItems: list.

13. Now publish your code and drink a glass of coffee!!

Browse the Pharo2VWExamples in your system browser to get more examples

Running the tests

Use test runner to execute the tests. Pharo2VWExporterTest execute all the examples in Pharo2VWExamples.

1. Pharo2VW offers Lint rules to check whether Pharo code do not use exotic syntactic extensions
2. Traits are flattened into classes
3. {} are transformed into Array
4. Initialize methods are properly generated at the top of each class hierarchy
5. Support namespace imports

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Contact

Feel free to add issues if you wish to have some requestion for enhancement, bug fixes, or bug description. You can get in touch with us on discord (instruction on http://pharo.org/community), channel #Roassal