CuisUniversity is a customized version of Cuis that we are using to teach Object Oriented at the UBA and UNQ. We created that distribution to facilitate its installation and use by young students. It comes with Aconcagua, Chalten, Refactoring for Cuis and DenotativeObject. DenotativeObject is an environment to work with classless objects, a la Self, but using Smalltalk tools as the browser, workspace, inspector and debugger. We will show how the solution we adopted to have classless objects, how we implemented delegation, sharing, cloning and the like, how we customized the tools to work with classless objects and minimize the transition from those tools to the classic Smalltalk tools.

1. CuisUniversity
Hernán A. Wilkinson
@hernanwilkinson
agile software development & services

2. Teaching OO/Smalltalk Challenges
Class or
Instance?
To subclass or
not to subclass
Where is the
code? How do I
share it?
“The image
crashed!! I lost
everything!!”
What class should I
use? There are so
many!

3. Cuis
• Advantages:
• Small  Easier to learn
• Fast  UI response is immediate
• Stable  Very important for non-Smalltalkers!
• Simple code sharing  File in/out or packages with Git
• Navigation from UI Tools to model (Halos)  Helps inspection and learning
• 32/64 bits, Mac/Win/Linux support and RaspberryPi
• Appropriable

4. CuisUniversity
(https://sites.google.com/view/cuis-university/cuisuniversity?authuser=0)
• Customized Cuis distribution created to teach OO at Universities
• Dedicated Web Site
• Support in Spanish
• Simpler Installation (different files for 32/64 & win/mac/linux)
• Pre-installed packages
• Aconcagua
• Chalten
• Refactorings
• DenotativeObjects

5. Aconcagua

6. https://github.com/hernanwilkinson/Cuis-Smalltalk-Aconcagua

7. Chalten

8. https://github.com/hernanwilkinson/Cuis-Smalltalk-Chalten

9. Refactoring
https://github.com/hernanwilkinson/Cuis-Smalltalk-Refactoring
(more are coming… Implemented with TDD)

10. Improved TDD tool support

11. Recover lost changes

12. DenotativeObjects
https://github.com/hernanwilkinson/Cuis-Smalltalk-DenotativeObject
• Objectives:
• To help learning OO with direct object manipulation
• Avoid class-instance differentiation at the beginning
• Reinforce representation (modeling)
• Reinforce encapsulation and cohesion
• Similar tools to facilitate transition (similar browser, inspector, debugger, etc.)
• Be able to debug and inspect from the beginning
• Denotative: The denotation of a word is its explicit definition as listed in a
dictionary
• Connotative: Association or set of associations that a word usually brings
to mind
• Implementation: Use classes as DenotativeObjects
© Name & Ideas by Máximo Prieto, Implementation & Ideas by Hernán Wilkinson, Ideas by Juan
Vuletich and Sponsored by 10Pines

13. only objects
auto created
Direct object reference
Embedded workspace
Simplified and applied only to denotative objects

14. Special menus
Immediate send, inspect and debug
Simple code & object sharing

15. Object creation
Object definition
Object using sharing

16. Delegation to parent
(no super  )
Delegation without
special keyword…
Delegation sending
different message

17. Direct send or execution of test

18. Assert
(implemented using TDD with itself!)

19. Denotative object contexts only
Steps only into denotative objects
Behaves as Through

20. Clones & Replicants

21. Achievements
• Concrete manipulation of Objects
• Immediate feedback of computation
• Better understanding of Objects
• Easy migration from DenotativeObject’s tools to Smalltalk’s tools
• Inspection from day one
• Debugging from day one
• 49 hrs implementation investment!  Cuis showed to be simple &
powerful enough

22. agile software development & services
¡Gracias!