Seaside/Squeak/Linux: service with GUI as needed

Lukas,

With respect to "plug it in and throw the switch," you mention that it
is possible.  Are there any tricks to it, other than setting up the
Squeak/Pharo image as a service?  Are the following links worthy of
attention?

 
http://onsmalltalk.com/programming/smalltalk/seaside/my-journey-to-linux/

http://onsmalltalk.com/programming/smalltalk/scaling-seaside-redux-enter-the-penguin/

Re configuration, most of it would be things that I would do through
Seaside.  The exact details (Seaside served from "the" image doing the
work, or a Seaside image along side of other images doing the real work)
will depend on my experience with reliability.  I have read widely
differing reports on what to expect, and need to try it.  My BibTeX
gizmo looks like it will be the sentinel.

OmniBrowser is prominent in your reply.  What feature(s) of it earn that
position?

RemoteFrameBuffer looks like it could be very useful, though it appears
to encrypt only for password exchange.  Do you have any concerns about
its security?  Assuming I am seriously paranoid about such things (gotta
be with medical records), should *I* be concerned about its security?  I
reserve the right to be concerned regardless of your reply, but I am
curious about your take on it.

Thanks!

Bill

==========================
Lukas Renggli renggli at gmail.com
Sat Jul 12 19:52:46 UTC 2008

>  (1) Pharo image(s) run as service(s); the computer is (ab)used pretty
>  much as an appliance; technicians are told to plug in the network
cable,
>  then turn on the box, and if all is well, it "just works".

That's already possible.

>  (2) most (Smalltalk) configuration tasks happen via a Seaside
interface.

What configuration tasks? If these are not yet available an interface
could certainly be built. OmniBrowser and the XUL integration is also
a possibility here.

>  (3) I realize that I can edit code through Seaside's halos, but I
will
>  sometimes want to interact graphically with the Squeak image; it will
be
>  doing other things beyond serving Seaside pages.  I envision (please
>  tell me if there are better ways) making a remote desktop (or
similar)
>  connection to the server, stopping the offending service, and
restarting
>  it as a desktop user to debug, save the changed image, exit, restart
the
>  service, and log out.

OmniBrowser.

>  Is this a SSH/VNC task, or is there a better way.  Some things I have
>  read appear to suggest that one can simply use VNC to attach to the
>  running Squeak service and a GUI instantly appears???  That seems too
>  slick to expect it to work.

RemoteFrameBuffer is perfect to do that. Like this you start you image
headless on the server, and use a VNC client to connect to the screen
from anywhere. I use that on all my servers.

>  Do things change if one replaces Linux with Windows?  I am trying to
>  escape, but it will take some time to complete the transfer.

Linux is great for deployment. A long time ago I did some deployment
on Windows servers. What's inside the image (e.g. RemoteFrameBuffer)
works equally well. The host OS is not so cool ...

Cheers,
Lukas

Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bschwab <at> anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029