Spec-Gtk

The Spec Gtk bindings for Pharo

How to install

On Windows

You need Gtk3!
And you need to put it at the same place of the Pharo.exe executable.
To simplify the process we created a VM bundled with all the DLL and resources needed to execute GTK+3

You can get it from: http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo-spur64-headless/win/latest-win64-GTK.zip

NOTE: If you are running under cygwin subsystem, remember to chmod +x *. Libraries have to be executable!

On Linux

You need to have Gtk3 installed (this should be already the case).
IMPORTANT: Since the zeroconf VMs (the ones used by PharoLauncher) are really not suitable for linux environments, better not try to use them, as they will not find important dependences. Instead, use the ones Pharo provides through the Open Building Service.

On macOS:

IMPORTANT: Spec-Gtk is currently not working on mac. We will update this as soon as we figure out how to make our gtk3 bindings to work on latest mac machines (which includes ARM processors, so not so easy).

You need Gtk3 (installed by brew because paths are fixed for now)

brew install gtk+3

Installing in your image

1. Download a Pharo 11.0 image:

curl get.pharo.org/110 | bash

2. Open your image using ./pharo-ui Pharo.image and evaluate:

 Metacello new
        repository: 'github://pharo-spec/Spec-Gtk';
        baseline: 'SpecGtk';
        onConflict: [ :e | e useIncoming ];
        onUpgrade: [ :e | e useIncoming ];
        ignoreImage;
        load

After the execution, save the image, and quit.

In macOS, if you open the image using ./pharo-ui Pharo.image, the image should give the feeling of being significantly slower. This is because the Gtk event loop is running. You can verify this by opening the process browser: you should see a line begining with (70) GtkRunLoop.

A first example

The following code should open a small UI:

SpLabelPresenter new
	application: (SpApplication new useBackend: #Gtk);	
	label: 'Hello, Gtk3';
	open.

A note on execution

Pharo has different ways of being ejecuted. The default one will execute the VM and everything needed in the main thread. This is usually suitable for Pharo needs, but it is a problem when the UI loop is required to run separately (not just for Gtk but any backend that you need to run on idle mode).
Fortunaltely, Pharo implements also a way to be executed in a worker thread, making space so the main thread can be used for other purposes. We highly recommend that you execute Pharo using a worker thread (future versions of Spec-Gtk will require this usage, and is definitevely better.

Executing Pharo in a worker thread:

pharo --worker MyImage.image --interactive

Current status

Currently, only the low-level infrastructure is supported. Tools building based on solely Spec2/Gtk are under way. Be patient.