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10.1: Installation and First Visualization

  • Page ID
    43715
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    Roassal is part of the Moose distribution1. Nothing has to be installed and you can directly proceed to your first visualization.

    Installing Roassal in a fresh Pharo image is easy, thanks to Gofer and Metacello. Just open a workspace and execute:

    Gofer new smalltalkhubUser: 'ObjectProfile'
        project: 'Roassal';
        package: 'ConfigurationOfRoassal';
        load.
    (Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfRoassal) load
    

    Roassal is known to work with the versions 1.4, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 of Pharo.

    A first visualization.

    The first visualization we will show represents the Collection class hierarchy. It defines each class as a box connected with its subclasses. Each box displays the number of methods and number of instance variables of the represented class.

    view := ROView new.
    classElements := ROElement forCollection:
        Collection withAllSubclasses.
    
    classElements
        do: [ :c |
            c width: c model instVarNames size.
            c height: c model methods size.
            c + ROBorder.
            c @ RODraggable ].
    view addAll: classElements.
    
    associations := classElements
        collect: [:c |
            (c model superclass = Object)
                ifFalse: [ (view elementFromModel: c
            model superclass) -> c]]
        thenSelect: [ :assoc | assoc isNil not ].
    edges := ROEdge linesFor: associations.
    view addAll: edges.
    
    ROTreeLayout new on: view elements.
    view open 
    
    The first visualization with Roassal.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): First visualization using the Roassal framework.

    How to achieve this visualization will be explained in this chapter. The next chapter details how to create it using the Mondrian domain-specific language (DSL) by using the Mondrian builder, which is part of Roassal.

    Roassal Easel

    The Roassal easel is a tool to interactively script visualizations. The metaphor used with the easel is to turn the programmer into a painter carrying out the work on an easel: creating, adjusting, erasing are just a few (key) strokes away.

    The Roassal easel is accessible from the Pharo World menu. Just look for the R icon2.

    The easel is made of two independent windows, the one on the left-hand side renders the script written in the textual window on the right-hand side. By accepting (Cmd-s, Alt-s / right-clicking and pressing accept) in the editor, the visualization will be updated. This is the same keystroke used for accepting a method in the system browser. The advantage of this is to have a short feedback loop. With this, the meaning of your script is always one keystroke away.

    The visualization window contains many examples of visualizations, including a step-by-step tutorial. Examples are separated in two categories: ROExample and ROMondrianExample, and are accessible by clicking in the examples button in the upper part of the visualization window.

    Roassal Easel examples.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Roassal Easel examples separated by the ROMondrianViewBuilder and ROExample categories.

    The ROMondrianExample category includes examples created with Mondrian, a domain specific language built at on top of Roassal. These examples primarily use the ROMondrianViewBuilder class to make a visualization. The ROExample category directly illustrates Roassal.


    1. http://www.moosetechnology.org/
    2. Note that a Glamour-based easel is also provided, under the Moose section of the World menu. The Glamour-based Roassal easel is similar to the easel presented here. A dedicated presentation of this version may be found in the moose book, http://themoosebook.org.

    This page titled 10.1: Installation and First Visualization is shared under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alexandre Bergel, Damien Cassou, Stéphane Ducasse, Jannik Laval (Square Bracket Associates) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.