It's possible to interact with opencv and screen outside vm window?

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I worked with smalltalk as hobby when Pharo born. A lot of years passed without touching it, and I'm sure a lot of things happened in smalltalk world. Now I have some projects in my mind and my main idea was to develop using python but I'm thinking to retake this enviroment I loved. One of this projects is about using opencv for recognition from a Webcam, recognition of screen changes in other windows, and painting specific things on screen (a board game).

My idea is to develop on Linux and Windows, and release on Windows/Linux/Mac. Right now which ST flavour fits the interaction I need? Right now what's the main difference between Pharo an Squeak?

Thanks.

squeak pharo smalltalk
2 Answers

I'm sure there are more qualified people around to answer this question. I'll try to be as objective as possible, but these are only my opinions others can see it otherwise. I will write only short description for each.

The interaction would have to be done via FFI.

I also don't know every dialect there is. For example, I haven't heard of trufflesqueak before.

To fit your picture windows/linux/mac:

These smalltalk(s) have the VM support you require (in random order): GemStone, Pharo, Squeak, Cuis-Smalltalk

  • GemStone/S - is a distributed Smalltalk system with a massive, persistent memory. Offers free usage and also has a commercial support. Very nice Smalltalk with many platforms supported. Windows is supported only as client.

  • Pharo is a open-source implementation which was originally forked from Squeak. Nice environment, which you know, but it needs to cleanup the code. It has very fast development cycle. In my eyes, the newest VMs have stability issues. The description here on SO.

  • Squeak the original Smalltalk-80 implementation with plenty of legacy code, but the VM is quite stable and lately it works very nice. The description here on SO.

  • Cuis-Smalltalk is a multiplatform Smalltalk-80 implementation. Cuis shares the OpenSmalltalk Virtual Machine with Squeak, Pharo and Newspeak. I did not see any projects created in Cuis, maybe somebody can correct me.

Other interesting smalltalks:

  • Dolphin (windows only) - nice smalltalk for Windows. Supports integration with Windows and calling windows code.

  • Smalltalk/X - for Windows and Linux VM (there is MacOS VM port for Smalltalk/X but it is not public yet, maybe it will appear on Smalltalk/X-jv later on). Developed by eXept mainly by Claus Gettinger. There is an independent branch Smalltalk/X-jv - list of features and the description on SO.

Commercial Smalltalks

You can try these out, but you for commercial use you have to pay license fee.

  • VAST owned by instantiations - they are working on MacOS support but it is not there yet. Very mature Smalltalk with commercial support.

  • Cincom's VisualWorks - The development is somewhat lacking lately but still Smalltalk with company behind it.

user_60598960

Pharo Spec (the widget library) has a Gtk3 backend that can be used to develop application in any platform (there are a few targeting windows), and I know there was work done using OpenCV, but you will have more luck asking that in our discord channel (https://discord.gg/QewZMZa) or any of our mailing lists (check links here: https://pharo.org/community).

user_5790190
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