Can't install

[julKali]

Hi there,
I am trying to install this on the current latest Squeak 6 release (I have never used Squeak before).
I am getting the following error:

Is this something related to this project or my installation?

[tom95]

Hi @julKali, thanks for the report! I fixed the issue you were observing but while testing, I ran into issues with the current FFI library setup to invoke tree-sitter that you might encounter as well. Can I ask what OS you are running?

(To test, go to the Apps menu, open Sandblocks, then press the "+ Ctrl t" button at the top, and choose newPythonFile. You will likely get an error. If so, save, close, and reopen Squeak once and try creating another python file. You might then get an error saying something about "allSatisfy" -- that's the FFI issue I'm a bit unsure about still)

[selve11]

I'm getting the same on macos sequoia

[julKali]

Thank you for your quick reply! I'm using Fedora Linux. I tried both downloading the most recent version on squeak.org and the one bundled in sandbox-all.zip from the main Sandblocks repo.

[julKali]

Yes, on the first newPythonFile call, I get:

But after saving and closing, clicking newPythonFile is actually completely unresponsive. There are also no error messages in Squeak or the output of the Squeak process in the Linux console ...

[julKali]

Also, do the features described in https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3544548.3580785 also work in the JS examples in https://github.com/hpi-swa/sandblocks ?

[tom95]

Thank you for testing and for the update!

I'll unfortunately only get to fix the issue at the end of the coming week.

The version described in the paper depends on tree-sitter, so it only works with this repo.

[julKali]

Is it something I can fix locally? I am presenting your paper this Thursday and it would be much more engaging to have a working demo. I can work with the sandblocks repo, but its behavior is not entirely consistent with what you describe in the Treesitter example.

[tom95]

Ah thanks for the info! In that case, I threw together this demo zip for now, compatible with Linux only: https://tmbe.me/c/sb-tree-sitter-demo.zip (unzip and run ./Squeak6.0-22104-64bit-202206021410-Linux-x64/squeak.sh sq.image. You should be greeted by an open file. Opening any other language works via the same plus button at the top for any of the new<lang>File entries).

I'll get onto fixing the actual dependency issue later on then.

I hope it works on your end as well, please let me know if not. You will likely run into some debuggers popping up occasionally during use of the editor. Most of the time, you should be able to just close them and continue. It is recommended to save the squeak image as a new version on occasion if you prepare something in it, to have a save state to go back to. If anything doesn't work out, feel free to write here again. And if there happens to be any interesting comments during your presentation or based on your own use, I'd also be happy to hear about them :)

[julKali]

Thank you so much, seems to work on my side!
Not really necessary, but more out of interest:
If I have a file with the following content:

import i18n from "../locales/i18n";

export const defaultPageSizes = [10, 20, 50];

export function isValidRegex(r: string) {
  var isValid = true;
  try {
    new RegExp(r);
  } catch (e) {
    isValid = false;
  }
  return isValid;
}


export function getRegexErr(enable: boolean, regex: string) {
  return (enable ? (isValidRegex(regex) ? undefined : "Regular expression invalid") : undefined);

}

const coerceToNumber = (value: any) => {
  const stringAfterPrefix = String(value).split('/').findLast(() => true);
  return Number(stringAfterPrefix);
}

export function compareFn<T extends Object>(dir: string, accessor: keyof T, numeric: boolean = false) {
  return ((da: T, db: T) => {
    const a = numeric ? coerceToNumber(da[accessor]) : da[accessor];
    const b = numeric ? coerceToNumber(db[accessor]) : db[accessor];
    const d = dir === 'asc' ? 1 : -1;

    if (typeof a === 'number' && typeof b === 'number') {
      if (a < b) {
        return -1*d;
      } else if (a > b) {
        return 1*d;
      }
      return 0;
    } else if (typeof a === 'string' && typeof b === 'string') {
      return a.localeCompare(b, i18n.language)*d;
    } else {
      const sa = JSON.stringify(a);
      const sb = JSON.stringify(b);
      if (sa && sb) {
        return sa.localeCompare(sb, i18n.language)*d;
      } else {
        return 0;
      }
    }
  });
}

named datatable.ts, I can try to open it with Ctrl + t > "Open file ...". But it seems to be unable to parse it:

There seems to be no error message either. Is this expected behavior?

Either way, I will play around with it tomorrow. Thanks for being so responsive!

[tom95]

Ah, the easiest way to open external files right now is to open a Squeak workspace (left click in gray background, choose Workspace), then paste this snippet with an adjusted path to the folder with the file/project, and pressing Ctrl+d for (do-it): SBFileEditor openProject: '/home/me/project/path'. You should then see a window open that has a file list on the left. Clicking on the file should open it in the block editor.

[julKali]

Thank you again, I think that the students I presented this to were very engaged, and having the demo really made the change. Personally, I really liked the block-cursor navigation and editing.

Some notable comments that came up

• Against clutter: Maybe there is a way to have a "compact" and an "extended" view? That can be toggled?
• Maybe colors could be helpful to give visual cues, e.g. for node borders
• Surely would be very cool to supercharge this with a language server (you mention this in the paper)

An edge case I found when editing:
Consider the following Python line:

Now, let's say I want to also add another variable test, put at the front of the summation. I will place the cursor before myVar and type t-e-s-t

But then, out of muscle-memory, I type " ", because in a textual world, I don't usually write "test+myVar" but "test + myVar"

Unfortunately, the reinterpretation logic in this case makes me jump to the front of myVar leaving the leaf node as testmyVar: