Smalltalk Digest: October Edition

New Cincom Smalltalk™ Product Release Information

• Major Releases Available — Cincom® ObjectStudio® 8.9 and Cincom® VisualWorks® 8.3 Are Available!
• Unified Document — Improvement to Cincom Smalltalk™ Data Sheet

Latest News and Updates

• **NEW** Exposing Unknown Abilities — Hidden Gems Screencast Series
• Upcoming Conference Information — Smalltalks 2017 Registration, Event and Activities Information
• Students Tackle a Challenge — Student-Created Application Provides an Adaptable and Flexible Programming Environment for the Visually Impaired
• Providing a Stable Core — Cincom Smalltalk Helps Digital Design Solutions LLC Optimize Auditorium Design System
• Presentations Available — Successful #ESUG17 in the Books
• Results Are In — Smalltalk Is Not Just a Well-Loved Development Language, It Also Pays Well!
• Knowing Smalltalk — A Smart Move for a Developer

Upcoming Events

• October 22-27 — 2017 ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity – SPLASH (Vancouver, CA)
• October 30, 2017 — UK Smalltalk User Group (London, UK)
• November 8-10, 2017 — Smalltalks 2017 (La Plata, Argentina)
• November 13, 2017 — Toronto Smalltalk User Group (Toronto, Ontario)
• November 27, 2017 — UK Smalltalk User Group (London, UK)

Benefit Highlights and Resources

• Partnering for Success — Cincom Supporting Customer and Partner Success
• Event Promotion — Do You Have an Event That You Would Like to Have Promoted?
• Website Feature — Contributed Components
• Academia — The Cincom Smalltalk Academic Program
• Extending Knowledge — Get Social with Cincom Smalltalk
• Common Tools Tutorials  — “Common Tools” Tutorial Videos Available
• Product Information Tutorials — Product Information Tutorials Available

Smalltalk Job Opportunities and Career Resources

• Looking to Start a New Career?
• Visit the Smalltalk Job Blog
• Network with Cincom Smalltalk
• Career-Related Articles

Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9 and Cincom VisualWorks 8.3 Are Available!

We mentioned to you last month that the current releases of Cincom ObjectStudio 8.9 and Cincom VisualWorks 8.3 are now available for customers and partners. These are major releases that address over 700 action requests (ARs) and represent several significant improvements and new features. To read more about these exciting new releases, click here.

The new releases of @cincomsmalltalk are now available for customers & partners. Get your #commercialsmalltalk here: https://t.co/XK9aPo5l7Z

— Cincom Smalltalk (@cincomsmalltalk) September 12, 2017

Improvement to Cincom Smalltalk Data Sheet

Each time a major release of Cincom Smalltalk comes out, the data sheet for each product is updated and provided in the documentation, as well as on the Cincom Smalltalk website. For this release, we took a different approach, combining the individual Cincom ObjectStudio and Cincom VisualWorks copy with information about the Cincom Smalltalk Foundation. This unified document resulted in the first ever “Cincom Smalltalk Data Sheet” and provides a good foundation for the future direction of Cincom Smalltalk. To view this new data sheet, click here.

**NEW** Exposing Unknown Abilities — Hidden Gems Screencast Series

The purpose of the Hidden Gems Screencast is to make developers who use Cincom Smalltalk aware of the useful abilities of the products that may not be obvious. This month’s edition is a continuation of the ValueModels mini series.  This episode is on MyBlockValue:

The powerful concept of ValueModels can make your applications simpler, more modular and more reusable―if you know how. Here’s another example walkthrough about MyBlockValue, for those who are new to the product.

Smalltalks 2017 Registration and Call for Participation

FAST (Fundación Argentina de Smalltalk) invites you to attend and participate in the 11th Smalltalks 2017 Conference. This popular conference focuses on Smalltalk-based technologies, research and industry applications and will be held in La Plata, Argentina on November 8-10 at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Additional activities are also planned at the same site on November 6 and 7.

• For information on ways that you can contribute to this event, click here.
• For information on registration, accommodations and how you can support FAST, click here.
• **NEW** For information on “Additional Activities Registration,” click here.

Student-Created Application Provides an Adaptable and Flexible Programming Environment for the Visually Impaired

At Universidad Nacional de Quilmes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two students, along with the backing of their professors, elected to tackle a challenge that was affecting their visually impaired classmates: integrating screen readers with Smalltalk. Click here to read this interesting story.

On #WorldTeachersDay, here’s a #TBT to Professor @GabiBArevalo and her students that created the #Lazaro Project: https://t.co/tVJBzfl9nZ

— Cincom Smalltalk (@cincomsmalltalk) October 5, 2017

Cincom Smalltalk Helps Digital Design Solutions LLC Optimize Auditorium Design System

Digital Design Solutions LLC provides digital design solutions to a wide range of design professionals. They recently used the capabilities of Cincom Smalltalk to help them achieve the challenge of developing a robust and non-contradictory optimization system that optimizes the acoustical, visual and programmatic parameters while displaying 3D components in 2D. Click here for the complete user story.

Successful #ESUG17 in the Books

Recently, several members of the Cincom Smalltalk product team were at the 2017 European Smalltalk User Group Conference in Maribor, Slovenia. Part of the team was there as speakers while other team members had the opportunity to meet with current customers and partners, picking up requests for the new product release (see above).

• Click here to view the presentations from our speakers.
• Click here for some candid photos and tweets from the conference (our Cincom Smalltalk #ESUG17 Twitter Moment).

Follow the @cincomsmalltalk team at #ESUG17 in this Twitter Moment: ⚡️ “#ESUG17” by @cincomsmalltalkhttps://t.co/529j0MUBwr

— Cincom Smalltalk (@cincomsmalltalk) September 5, 2017

Smalltalk Is Not Just a Well-Loved Development Language, It Also Pays Well!

Besides listing Smalltalk as the #2 Most Loved Software Language, the 2017 Stack Overflow Survey showed that Smalltalk developers are also the second highest salary-earners, based on experience. To see these results, as well as the Salary Self-Assessment by Language, click here. For Smalltalk job opportunities and resources, see below.

Knowing Smalltalk Is a Smart Move for Developers

Obviously, learning Smalltalk is beneficial—even if you wind up not having the opportunity to use it directly. Click here for more information on how knowing Smalltalk is a big plus for developers.

Update on Smalltalk Events

Click here for an update on Smalltalk-related events you may want to attend.

Cincom Supporting Customer and Partner Success

The Cincom Smalltalk Team is extending an offer to its current users to let us assist in helping to promote their applications or services. For more information, or if you are interested in participating in this offer, click here.

Do You Have an Event That You Would Like to Have Promoted?

Do you have a Camp Smalltalk, Smalltalk conference or other event that you would like promoted? We can help. Click here to find out how.

Contributed Components

Looking for a particular contributed component? Find all that are available with our current product offerings here.

The Cincom Smalltalk Academic Program

With a goal of increasing the quality of the available system design and engineering training, providing higher-quality engineers and developers to the industry and users, and expanding the Smalltalk community, we suggest that you look into the Cincom Smalltalk Academic Program. Click here to read all about it.

Get Social with Cincom Smalltalk

Our website is a virtual goldmine with a wealth of knowledge found throughout the many pages on our site. Did you know we also have an active social media presence? Click here for more information on getting social with Cincom Smalltalk.

“Common Tools” Tutorial Videos Available

The Cincom Smalltalk Team has made a series of tutorials available. The first set of tutorials focuses on “Common Tools” and how many of these tools, which are used for development in Cincom ObjectStudio and Cincom VisualWorks, are now shared.

• System Browser Overview
• Core Browser Usage
• Inspector Tool
• Debugger Overview
• Debugger Usage
• Version Control
• Process Monitor
• Code Recovery

Product Information Tutorials Available

The Cincom Smalltalk Team has launched a series of tutorials for introducing our products.

• Cincom ObjectStudio Product Introduction
• Cincom ObjectStudio GUI Designer, Part One
• Cincom VisualWorks Product Introduction
• Cincom ObjectStudio GUI Designer, Part Two
• Cincom ObjectStudio Modeling Tool Overview
• Setting Up Your Environment

Looking to Start a New Career?

According to the results of the 2017 Stack Overflow Survey, only 13% of developers are actively looking for a job. However, over 75% of developers are interested in hearing and learning about new job opportunities.

Are you bored with the same old daily grind?  Maybe your current position doesn’t present a challenge or an opportunity to show off your wide range of skills, abilities and full potential. Maybe it’s time to think about moving on to something different—something more exciting and challenging. Cincom Smalltalk is growing and improving by leaps and bounds, and you just might be a perfect fit for this team of innovative professionals. There’s no better time than the present to check it out!

For more information about the positions we are currently looking to fill, or to discuss how you might contribute to our growing team, click here.

Visit the Smalltalk Jobs Blog

Are you interested in a Smalltalk-related job?  Cincom Smalltalk Support Engineer James Savidge keeps the Smalltalk community up-to-date regarding Smalltalk opportunities throughout the community. The Smalltalk Jobs Blog posts Smalltalk-related career opportunities from around the globe. Click here to see what’s available.

Network with Cincom Smalltalk

The results of the 2017 Stack Overflow Survey gave us a lot of insight into career opportunities. According to the survey, when the question was asked as to how developers found their current jobs, those who responded said that networking indeed does matter. The most common way developers found their most recent jobs was through a friend, family member or former colleague who told them about it. The second most common, however, was by being contacted by someone at the company, such as a company recruiter.

If you are interested in networking and leveraging the name of the largest global commercial Smalltalk provider to help benefit your career, reach out to Jeremy Jordan, the Sr. Creator of Opportunities for Cincom Smalltalk.

Career-Related Articles

Establishing a fulfilling career in today’s competitive world isn’t easy!  Click here to view interesting career-related articles and resources that you may find informative and helpful.