Developing, testing and mocking the largest MIDI instrument of the world with a Raspberry Pi and a DIY LEDs piano

July 4, 2019

“El Carrillón” “El Carrillón” is a bell tower located in “La Fiesta Nacional de la Flor” in Escobar, Buenos Aires, Argentina. There, a huge event takes place every year: There are 18 pneumatic bells, controlled by a Raspberry Pi Zero using two IO Pi Zero boards and then a driver module composed of triacs. Each IO expander … More Developing, testing and mocking the largest MIDI instrument of the world with a Raspberry Pi and a DIY LEDs piano

VA Smalltalk: Remote controlling Raspberry Pis from Across the World!

June 11, 2019

You probably know that with my friends Gera and Javier we are working on a Bell tower (called Carrillon) automation using Raspberry Pi, Python and VASmalltalk. Last week, Gera was in his way to Buenos Aires airport to take a plane to Las Vegas. Via chat, he told me he forgot his Pi: he wanted … More VA Smalltalk: Remote controlling Raspberry Pis from Across the World!

Beginners guide to GPIO in VASmalltalk

June 7, 2019

As I commented in an earlier post, one of the great features VASmalltalk has in the context of IoT, is a wrapper of the C library pigpio which allows us to manage GPIOs as well as their associated protocols like 1-Wire, I2C, etc. In this post we will see the basic setup for getting this … More Beginners guide to GPIO in VASmalltalk

Getting started with VASmalltalk, Raspberry Pi and other devices

June 5, 2019

In the previous post, I described why I personally believe that Smalltalk is a good fit for IoT. When we talk about IoT, there are millions of topics we can touch: single board computers, sensors, security, protocols, edge computing, GPIOs, AI, and so on…   But one device in particular that changed the world is the … More Getting started with VASmalltalk, Raspberry Pi and other devices

Why is Smalltalk a good fit for IoT and edge computing?

May 20, 2019

I was gonna start a series of posts about Smalltalk, IoT, Edge Computing, Raspberry Pi, etc. But before that, I would like to answer a question that I am asked each time I present something related with these topics. Why is Smalltalk a good fit for IoT and edge computing? Does it have unique features … More Why is Smalltalk a good fit for IoT and edge computing?

Docker Swarm ARM 64 cluster running Smalltalk

May 14, 2019

In the previous post we saw how to build a single-node Docker Swarm running VASmalltalk. That stack involved one web server (Traefik) load balancing across 10 VASmalltalk images running a Seaside web application. All containers in same node. Preparing the physical cluster Before getting started, know that the code has been published on Github in the same … More Docker Swarm ARM 64 cluster running Smalltalk

Now, single-node Docker Swarm and Smalltalk

May 8, 2019

Previously… In the previous post we saw an introduction to Docker and Linux containers and one possible usage for Smalltalk. We saw how to create the Dockerfile for a Seaside web application developed and running within VASmalltalk , build a Docker image, and finally run a container with it. However, one of the conclusions from … More Now, single-node Docker Swarm and Smalltalk

Getting started with Docker and Smalltalk!

May 6, 2019

What is Docker and Linux Containers? Linux containers are a way of virtualization that has been around since quite some time already. Compared to the classical “Virtual Machine” like VMWare, VirtualBox etc that are bulky and heavy to run, containers are lightweight, much smaller and they share the host’s kernel. That is, X number of … More Getting started with Docker and Smalltalk!

Another example of how great the Smalltalk community is

April 30, 2019

I think a clear example of how great the Smalltalk community is just happened to me once again  during the recent Camp Smalltalk at North Carolina organized by Instantiations. But “the thing” started way before that. I think Tim Rowledge started with some GPIO lib wrapper in Squeak. Louis LaBrunda was interested on having that on … More Another example of how great the Smalltalk community is

Serializing large graphs with SIXX in GemStone

March 11, 2015

Hi guys, While I promised to start a series of posts about GemStone itself, today I wanted to write down some notes about something I’ve been doing in the last days. Serializing object graphs with SIXX One possible way of moving objects between different GemStone instances or even between GemStone and Pharo, is a serializer. … More Serializing large graphs with SIXX in GemStone