untagged-20240619-230920

semantics: add missing dictionary method

First Stable Release

This release marks the end of the beta phase for Squeak Inbox Talk. We introduce a reliable versioning strategy, add support for the latest messages through HyperKitty, and provide several new features such as support for rich-text messages, access to attachments, and more.

New Versioning Strategy

Squeak Inbox Talk has established a versioning strategy that follows the trunk-based development style of Squeak. Development takes place on the main branch of this repository which supports the Squeak Trunk, and a stable version is kept in the squeak60 branch that is compatible with Squeak 6.0. Only urgent bug fixes will be ported back. Read more about the versioning strategy in the readme.

The Squeak Inbox Talk (click to install) button in the Squeak Trunk and Squeak 6.0 images and the self-updater of Squeak Inbox Talk automatically discover the correct version. You can change the version through the preference "Squeak Inbox Talk self-update branch".

New Features

• Support for HyperKitty mailing list archives: The Squeak community has migrated its mailing list archives from pipermail to the new HyperKitty interface recently. Squeak History now supports retrieving messages from the new interface, and Squeak Inbox Talk complements this update. Through the new interface, updating an inbox is increased by up to 50%. On the downside, downloading an entire list has become significantly slower.

• Read rich text messages and access attachments: You can now choose between reading the messages of a conversation in their HTML version (if available), their plaintext version, and displaying their raw sources. Furthermore, you can display all attachments of messages such as changesets or screenshots directly in your image! Supported for HyperKitty and pipermail archives. Due to a known bug in HyperKitty, inline images are currently not supported.

• Polished user interface: Improved the appearance of the inbox browser, the conversation browser, and some dialogs.

• Indication of outdated inboxes: The Refresh button will change its color to remind you of downloading the latest messages. Configurable through the "inbox age" preferences.

  

• Timezone tooling: Click on the time of any message in a conversation browser to get an explanation of its original timezone.

  

• Generation of HyperKitty URLs: Create a permalink to any message or conversation by choosing Open in HyperKitty archive from its context menu.

  

• New keyboard shortcuts for browsing, filtering, and viewing messages. Displayed in the relevant menus.

• List of well-known inboxes: Did you know that you can browse not only squeak-dev but many other lists as well using Squeak Inbox Talk? From the settings menu in the inbox browser, choose any list you'd like to read.

  

Other changes

• Maintainance for Squeak 6.0 and the latest Squeak Trunk.
• Several bug fixes and stability improvements related to search & filters, refreshing inboxes, and parsing commit messages.
• Improvements to documentation.

Upgrade Notes

If you have already installed Squeak Inbox Talk, upgrade your version from the Settings menu and choose self-update.

Warning
Due to a bug in an older version of the self-updater, you need to perform this step twice!

Previously downloaded messages will be migrated automatically.

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Read the entire diff: v0.2..v1.0

Second beta release & Live Programming Seminar submission

See the abstract.txt in submission.zip for an organizational overview of the submission. For grading, please use the ready-to-use image inside the submission.zip archive.

First beta release (v0.1)

Squeak Inbox Talk - bringing squeak-dev into your image

Today I'm announcing a new tool that aims to make the Squeak development cycle a bit easier for all involved parties. Introducing Squeak Inbox Talk, which allows you as Squeak contributors and maintainers to review and discuss new features for Squeak directly in your image!

Many Squeakers have experienced the following troubles in the past:

1. Tedious navigation on the list: Where has this patch gone? Can someone remember where we were discussing this funky thing recently?
2. High entry barrier for new contributors: You need to sign up on the mailing list to follow discussions.
3. Hard review process: Notifications and discussions appear in your email client, but if you want to check out some code, you will switch to your image, of course.

In the last months, I have been trying to solve these and other issues. Squeak Inbox Talk allows you to interact with all relevant artifacts right in Squeak, including emails as well as Monticello contributions. It comes with a free-text search and several powerful filters for aspects such as packages, review state of a contribution, and your personal involvement. These filters should make it easier to survey certain domains, gain a better understanding of the connection between inbox versions, or keep track of your own proposals.

Please give it a try and return feedback! As one possible starting point, you could search for "terminate" to recapitulate Jaromir Matas's recent efforts on Process. For further information, you can read the official announcement on the mailing list here: [ANN] Squeak Inbox Talk - bringing squeak-dev into your image.

Installation

1. Install the latest Trunk updates

2. Do it:

   Metacello new
    	baseline: 'SqueakInboxTalk';
    	repository: 'github://hpi-swa-lab/squeak-inbox-talk:main';
    	load.

3. After the installation, in the main docking bar, choose "Squeak Inbox Talk" from the Apps menu, click Refresh, and there you go!

Alternatively, you can download a ready-to-use image from the release assets below.
This repository also provides further information, including a project board and some theoretical background.
Your feedback is especially helpful for my research before 2021-07-19 (but still appreciated later very much).

How does it work?

Basically, Squeak Inbox Talk is implemented by reusing and assembling together the following existing solutions: Squeak History, a project originally developed by Marcel (mt) that scrapes and processes all mailing list conversations from the pipermail archives; the SMTPClient in Squeak for sending messages; and the Monticello infrastructure, which remains the heart of our development workflow. Optionally, further components such as IMAPClient might follow later. On top of this, Squeak Inbox Talk adds a convenient layer for exploring and filtering conversations and contributions.