Integrated Jabber Engine inside Vista SmallTalk

[M. David Peterson]

[NOTE: The uncompressed size of the entire set of Vista SmallTalk components is less than 900k, though the core runtime and directly related libraries are less than 100k total.  One of the components made available as part of the extended library is the JabberNet component.  Though as outline below, there are currently security restrictions that keep the JabberConnect component from working within the context of IE7, it seems this will (hopefully) be changing, and therefore become a viable option in regards to the usage of an advanced messaging-based language such as SmallTalk (and SmallTalk/Squeak are SO PHREAKING SIMPLE to learn!) coupled with the advanced messaging capabilities of Jabber/XMPP.

When you consider the following two posts, the second of which showcases the fact that the reality that this will become a cross-browser/cross-platform solution, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks in regards to how Vista SmallTalk could become a key component of an advanced messaging system [as outlined in my previous post] in which could easily and efficiently provide all of the missing features and capabilities currently lacking and restrictions currently in place from the standpoint of internal browser scripting languages and components such as XmlHttpRequest.  In short, this could very easily become the foundation of an AJAXian-esque future for both browser-based as well as typical desktop applications.

Definitely something worth considering... [You can access more information, as well as daily snapshots via the VST wiki @ http://vistascript.net/vistascript/docuwiki/doku.php ]

[post: http://vistasmalltalk.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/browser-instant-messaging/]

I recently discoverd that the "JabberConnect" class doesn't work from browser applications.

The reason for this is the presence of a few lines of "unsafe" code in one of the support libraries. In .Net IL (the bytecode format generated bt C#) any use of memory pointers is flagged as "unsafe", and the presence of even one "unsafe" statement flags the entire assembly as requiring "full trust" security.

So while "JabberConnect" works fine in a desktop application (which is "full trust"), the same application will cause a security exception in a browser (which is "partial trust").

The solution is to rewrite the Jabber libraries so that they no longer require the "unsafe" code.

"Frictionless deployment" = no friction for the user, lots of friction for the developer.

[post: http://vistasmalltalk.wordpress.com/2006/09/19/projections-for-windows-vista/]

Paul Thurott  recently posted this.

"In an open letter to developers, Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin predicted that there would be over 200 million people using Windows Vista within 2 years of its January 2007 launch. This, he says, is an opportunity that hasn't arisen since Windows 95, which was released over 11 years ago."

Internet Explorer 7 is the standard Web browser for Windows Vista, so this means 200 million installation of IE7 as well.

Plus the automated IE7 browser upgrades on Windows XP starting in December (there are perhaps 500 million desktops currently running XP).

Plus the number of WPF/E installations for Firefox, Safari and Opera browsers - both Windows and Macinstosh.

Plus the number of "devices" (cellphones, PDA's, consoles) that will use WPF/E.

In short, over the next two years, there are going to be hundreds of millions of desktops/browsers/devices able to run Vista Smalltalk.

A major technology change happening in a very short timespan - it should be interesting.

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/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354