The latest version of Pharo, the open-source language and core library following in the tradition of Smalltalk, has been released. It brings several new tools in preview, updated git clients and system browsers, and a move to the 64-bit version as the recommended version for Windows.

Pharo is based on thus general concepts of Smalltalk. Thuss it is strongly object-oriented and everything in the Pharo language is an object. The language is dynamically typed; inheritance is simple; memory management is automatic via a garbage collector and its syntax is very simple and small.

There's an enthusiastic collection of developers using Pharo, and the developers make regular commits and provide almost daily bug fixes. The language has a number of ways to interface with C, and there are Java and JavaScript libraries.

The first change of note in Pharo 8 is the move to 64-bit as the recommended version for Windows - it already was the main version for Unix and OSX. Iceberg, the git client for Pharo, has also been improved in this release, with better management of projects and repositories management, improved merging, and  faster loading and comparison for projects with big packages.

Calypso, Pharo’s system browser has also been improved, with new and better refactoring integrations and AST-based suggestions for class definitions. The unified foreign function interface (UnifiedFFI) has also been improved with more support for literal objects, better type coercions, and more documentation.

One improvement that hasn't fully made it into this release, though it is included in preview, is the Spec2 GUI framework. When Spec 2 is fully supported, it will be suitable for running on top  of GtK 3, meaning Pharo will have support for native widgets on all supported platforms, providing Pharo developers with the ability to create apps with a native look and feel. Another tool included in preview is the new DrTests test analysis tool. The developers say the new release also opens the door for the upcoming headless VMs for servers and non-blocking FFI.

More Information

Pharo Website

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