I totally agree with marcus: using what we have today does not mean that we will be stuck with it but at least we have it.
I suggest to read Worse is better paper of Dick Gabriel.
Stef
A very similar decicion is RB-ParseTrees vs. Colins new CodeModel. I think that Colin's stuff is the right direction in the long run, but we should think about moving in the stuff that's already there and not delay just because something even better is imaginable.
(This is a common trap to run into, and we have seen it a lot in Squeak. If all that "not perfect" improvements that have been discussed would have been implemented, the system would be much better now.)
So I'd like to see OB on the tools front, and RB-ParseTrees+ the new Compiler and the RB Engine down under. Just as a first step.
After that is done, we should extend/replace the stuff with the CodeModel. Great stuff will be possible with a scheme that Colin is implementing.
Marcus