Using Squeak's File List to copy files

Okay, let's get started. There are a number of enhancements and other Squeak project source files saved on my other networked computer. I'd like to use those source files (change sets) here on the new Squeak "Windows 98"-based development box. Don't worry, for purposes of this development example you do not need the actual files.

For the purpose of this example I am using the Window 98 computer running Squeak 3.5 and plan to connect to the built-in FTP server on Mac OS X running on my PowerBook. If you have an FTP server available, use it. For Mac OS X be certain to enable the proper permissions and firewall access (OS X 10.2.5) in the Sharing System Preference.

The first task is to use Squeak to connect to that other networked computer and examine the contents of those files. Squeak has a very powerful built-in tool called FileList. Let's get familiar with it.

Using FileList to view local files

From the World->open.. menu choose "file list". The FileList browser will open.

Click on image for larger view.

Use can use FileList to navigate a file hierarchy and view file contents. The List Pane in the upper left corner of the FileList browser shows the path from the root volume to your current working directory.

To the right of the volumes list pane is a list pane containing all entries in your current directory. The bottom pane shows different contents depending on what mode you are in. Initially, the bottom text pane shows more detail about each of the file and directory entries in the current working directory.

You can click on the buttons "Name", "Date" and "Size" to change the sort order. By default the lists operate by "Date", and the most recently changed files are sorted to the top of the lists.

Using FileList to view remote files

If you select the top most entry in the left pane ("[]") you will see all root level entries the Operating System will show you. When you scroll the upper right pane down far enough you will eventually find list entries like these:

Those entries are FTP file servers that your Squeak image already knows about. Since the goal here was to examine some files on another computer, we can use FTP to browse from inside Squeak.

We need to add FTP information about the remote machine to the servers list Squeak already has defined. From the upper left pane list menu select "add server...".

A window will appear having default server information filled in. For the LAN I am using, the following edits were made. This information is very specific to my local Macintosh OS X system and the FTP server defined there.

You have to perform a "Do It" on this Smalltalk (Squeak) code to complete this step. Just do a "select all" and then a "Do it" from the menu in the workspace. If you like to use keystrokes to accomplish quickly you can use the keystrokes "Command-A" followed by "Command-D" on a Mac. Use Alt-A and Alt-D on Linux and Windows. Close the window when you are done.

Once the FTP server for my OS X machine was defined for Squeak, I could select the "[]" entry again to refresh the list and then scroll through the list of FTP servers and find my "OS X FTP" entry. Clicking once on that entry causes Squeak to make an FTP connection with the parameters we defined. Since I had not defined a password in the workspace above, I get a warning and then am asked for the correct password.

Once it is entered, successs.

Note, the initial starting directory was as we specified in the setup for our FTP.

directory: 'develop/squeak/3.5 tutorial'.

Go on to First Enhancement to File List.

Back to the beginning of this example.