I will be putting the draft with links into the test site in a couple of days. Jason was able to give me access and I was able to login. Thanks, Jason!
Right now, the draft is in plain text format without links. Some contents of sections were rewritten or moved. So I took a chance in redoing a couple of sections so either it might be the right direction or I probably went too far and should have left some sections alone. I tried to stay close to the vision provided by Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls (ie. The Future of Squeak).
Any constructive feedback, good or bad, is welcome.
Only the follow sections are not changed: Squeak is free with a liberal license Squeak Support What it is not
2nd Draft:
About Squeak is highly portable open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia facilities. Squeak is the vehicle of a wide range of projects, ranging from educational platforms to commercial web application development.
Other noteworthy aspects of Squeak include:
· real-time sound and music synthesis written entirely in Smalltalk · extensions of BitBlt to handle color of any depth and anti-aliased image rotation and scaling · network access support that allows simple construction of servers and other useful facilities · bit-identical execution on many platforms (Windows, Mac, Unix, and others) · a compact object format that typically requires only a single word of overhead per object · a simple yet efficient incremental garbage collector for 32-bit direct pointers with efficient bulk-mutation of objects
Each release includes platform-independent support for color, sound, and network access, with complete source code. Originally developed on the Macintosh, members of its user community have since ported it to numerous other platforms including Windows NT, XP Windows CE (it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX), all common flavors of UNIX, Acorn RiscOS, and a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D).
What is Squeak? Squeak is based on Smalltalk which was created more than 35 years ago. Smalltalk defined the term object orientation and is the first language in which everything is built from objects. Smalltalk is deeply inspired by ideas from Simula, Sketchpad and Lisp.
Even today, Smalltalk sets the bar for object oriented dynamically strongly typed interactive languages and environments. Unlike the standard static, file-based approach of other languages such as Ruby or Python, Squeak offers a true uniform fully reflective environment - real live objects. In this environment, when anyone can make a change to an object, its behavior changes immediately without having to restart the system. You can even modify or create objects while the application is running.
Squeak includes class libraries and virtual machine plugins for very advanced multimedia including anti-aliased 2D and accelerated 3D graphics, real-time sound and music synthesis, MPEG2 video and much more. In addition, Squeak has one of the most advanced fully reflective development environments ever created with over 600 addon packages available for single click download and installation.
Squeak runs bit-identical images across its entire portability base, greatly facilitating collaboration in diverse environments. Any image file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!).
What is Cool about Squeak "The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution hasn't started yet. Don't be misled by the enormous flow of money into bad defacto standards for unsophisticated buyers using poor adaptations of incomplete ideas." - Alan Kay
Squeak stands alone as a practical computing environment in which a developer, researcher, professor, or motivated student can examine source code for every part of the system, including graphics primitives and the virtual machine itself. One can make changes immediately and without needing to see or deal with any language other than Smalltalk.
Our diverse and very active community includes teachers, students, business application developers, researchers, music performers, interactive media artists, web developers and many others. Those individuals use Squeak for a wide variety of computing tasks, ranging from child education to innovative research in computer science, or creation of advanced dynamic web sites using the highly acclaimed continuation based Seaside framework.
A Brief History of Squeak Squeak began, very simply, with the needs of a research group at Apple. The goal was to build a system using a language as expressive and immediate as Smalltalk to pursue various application goals such as prototypical educational software, user interface experiments and another run at the Dynabook concept. The core team behind Squeak includes Dan Ingalls, Alan Kay, Ted Kaehler, and Scott Wallace. All of this has attracted many of the best and most experienced Smalltalk programmers and implementers in the world.
Philosophy The fundamental philosophy of Squeak is to write everything in Smalltalk. All of the source code in Squeak, including the virtual machine interpreter, is available to see, understand, modify, and extend for whatever purpose. It is a genuine, complete, compact, efficient and robust Smalltalk environment. Squeaks virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change. To achieve practical performance, a translator produces an equivalent C program whose performance is comparable to commercial Smalltalks.
Squeak is used as a computing tool for research on how computers can be used to enhance and amplify learning. Specifically, work in using computers to find new ways to reach children with powerful ideas of math and science.
Squeak provides a computer environment, such as Etoys, that help people learn ideas by building and playing around with them. Many meaningful and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and understand how some technologies, that they encounter in their everyday lives, work. The Etoys tutorial illustrates an example of a learning environment where students increase their knowledge and wisdom by experimentation and experience rather than by the traditional, passive reception of lectures and limited feedback loops.
-Larry Trutter
_________________________________________________________________ Invite your Hotmail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spa...
Looks great Larry! I have just a few nitpicks ( of course.)
Larry Trutter wrote:
2nd Draft:
About Squeak is highly portable open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia
Squeak is a highly portable, open-source
facilities. Squeak is the vehicle of a wide range of projects, ranging from educational platforms to commercial web application development.
Maybe: Squeak is the vehicle for a wide range of projects from educational platforms to commercial web application development.
Other noteworthy aspects of Squeak include:
Remove "Other"
· real-time sound and music synthesis written entirely in Smalltalk · extensions of BitBlt to handle color of any depth and anti-aliased image rotation and scaling
It'd be nice to get WarpBlt in here too
· network access support that allows simple construction of servers and other useful facilities · bit-identical execution on many platforms (Windows, Mac, Unix, and others) · a compact object format that typically requires only a single word of overhead per object · a simple yet efficient incremental garbage collector for 32-bit direct pointers with efficient bulk-mutation of objects
Maybe something general sounding about the comprehensive development environment, too?
Each release includes platform-independent support for color, sound, and network access, with complete source code.
How about: Every release includes platform-independent support for color, sound, network access, and a full complement of developer tools with complete source code.
Originally developed on the Macintosh, members of its user community have since ported it to
members of the Squeak community have since ported it to numerous other platforms including Windows NT, XP, Windows CE
numerous other platforms including Windows NT, XP Windows CE (it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX), all common flavors of UNIX, Acorn RiscOS, and a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D).
What is Squeak? Squeak is based on Smalltalk which was created more than 35 years ago. Smalltalk defined the term object orientation and is the first language in which everything is built from objects. Smalltalk is deeply inspired by ideas from Simula, Sketchpad and Lisp.
Even today, Smalltalk sets the bar for object oriented dynamically strongly typed interactive languages and environments. Unlike the standard static, file-based approach of other languages such as Ruby or Python, Squeak offers a true uniform fully reflective environment - real live objects. In this environment, when anyone can make a change to an object, its behavior changes immediately without having to restart the system. You can even modify or create objects while the application is running.
In this environment, when a change is made to an object, its behavior changes immediately without having to restart the system. You can even modify or create objects while the application is running.
Squeak includes class libraries and virtual machine plugins for very advanced multimedia including anti-aliased 2D and accelerated 3D
advanced multimedia feature including anti-aliased 2D, accelerated 3D
graphics, real-time sound and music synthesis, MPEG2 video and much more. In addition, Squeak has one of the most advanced fully reflective development environments ever created with over 600 addon packages available for single click download and installation.
Squeak runs bit-identical images across its entire portability base, greatly facilitating collaboration in diverse environments. Any image file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!).
What is Cool about Squeak "The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution hasn't started yet. Don't be misled by the enormous flow of money into bad defacto standards for unsophisticated buyers using poor adaptations of incomplete ideas."
- Alan Kay
Squeak stands alone as a practical computing environment in which a developer, researcher, professor, or motivated student can examine source code for every part of the system, including graphics primitives and the virtual machine itself. One can make changes immediately and without needing to see or deal with any language other than Smalltalk.
Our diverse and very active community includes teachers, students, business application developers, researchers, music performers, interactive media artists, web developers and many others. Those individuals use Squeak for a wide variety of computing tasks, ranging from child education to innovative research in computer science, or creation of advanced dynamic web sites using the highly acclaimed continuation based Seaside framework.
A Brief History of Squeak Squeak began, very simply, with the needs of a research group at Apple. The goal was to build a system using a language as expressive and immediate as Smalltalk to pursue various application goals such as prototypical educational software, user interface experiments and another run at the Dynabook concept. The core team behind Squeak includes Dan Ingalls, Alan Kay, Ted Kaehler, and Scott Wallace. All of this has attracted many of the best and most experienced Smalltalk programmers and implementers in the world.
Philosophy The fundamental philosophy of Squeak is to write everything in Smalltalk. All of the source code in Squeak, including the virtual machine interpreter, is available to see, understand, modify, and extend for whatever purpose. It is a genuine, complete, compact, efficient and robust Smalltalk environment. Squeak’s virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change. To achieve practical performance, a translator produces an equivalent C program whose performance is comparable to commercial Smalltalks.
I'd like to see more about the dynabook philosophy here.
I'd take the two paragraphs below and move them above, maybe under "About" since they convey more of what squeak is used for and not it's fundamental philosophy.
Squeak is used as a computing tool for research on how computers can be used to enhance and amplify learning. Specifically, work in using computers to find new ways to reach children with powerful ideas of math and science.
Squeak provides a computer environment, such as Etoys, that help people learn ideas by building and playing around with them. Many meaningful and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and understand how some technologies, that they encounter in their everyday lives, work. The Etoys tutorial illustrates an example of a learning environment where students increase their knowledge and wisdom by experimentation and experience rather than by the traditional, passive reception of lectures and limited feedback loops.
-Larry Trutter
Invite your Hotmail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spa...
Webteam mailing list Webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/webteam
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
I'm not completely happy with the Dynabook paragraph - I think it might need some more work.
Let me know if any more improvements are needed!
thanks, Larry Trutter
_________________________________________________________________ Check out all that glitters with the MSN Entertainment Guide to the Academy Awards® http://movies.msn.com/movies/oscars2007/?icid=ncoscartagline2
Larry Trutter skrev:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
I'm not completely happy with the Dynabook paragraph - I think it might need some more work.
Let me know if any more improvements are needed!
I think it looks good.
There are some quotations in the Dynabok paragraph that have a weird character: (ìa) notice the i in front of the a. There are some issues with Smallwiki and special characters, they tend to be parsed and modified under your feet.
I also think the quotation tag in the css must be modified to have a outline on the box, the white and light yellow play tricks on my eyes.
Karl
Hi all!
Larry Trutter skrev:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
Ok, here comes a lengthy feedback post. Sorry for being late but I didn't want to give feedback since I felt I was the wrong guy doing it (since I wrote the frontpage which had much of this text - but IMHO in a carefully discussed and improved form). But here goes anyway:
First sentence: "Squeak is a highly portable"
Possibly the first parts of this paragraph feel a bit redundant after the bullet list:
"Every release includes platform-independent support for color, sound,network access, and a full complement of developer tools with complete source code."
Perhaps:
"Every release includes the complete source code for everything, including developments tools."
This part feels old and I believe my version (which has been removed) was better: "Windows NT, XP, Windows CE(it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX),"
...should perhaps be like this: "most flavors of Windows including CE/PocketPC, all common flavors of UNIX and Linux, Acorn RiscOS, OS/2 and even a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D)."
Hmmmm, let me just quote my original "merged and improved" bullet list that got scrapped:
" * A largely Smalltalk-80 and ANSI Smalltalk X3J20 compatible language and system libraries * A virtual machine written in Squeak itself, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change ensuring the same behavior on the different supported platforms * A bit identical compact 32-bit direct pointer object memory with very little overhead per object * A simple yet efficient incremental hybrid generation scavenging mark and sweep garbage collector supporting efficient bulk-mutation of objects * A plugin system for the virtual machine with optional plugins for most parts outside the core like networking, file I/O, sound and graphics * Bit-identical execution including graphics on all major computing platforms including all major versions of Windows, MacOS and Unix/Linux, OS/2 Warp and RiscOS. And if your platform wasn't included in that list, Squeak is easy to port. :)"
I still think my bullet list is mostly better due to many reasons: - It mentions compatibility with X3J20 and Smalltalk-80 early on. - It includes the "VM written in itself" as a feature. - It merged the "bit identical" bit into the bullet on the object memory. - It explained in a bit more detail how advanced the GC is. - It mentions the VM plugin system which is a strong feature. - It mentions OS/2 Warp and does not mention old stuff like the Cassiopeia etc. And people hardly knows what CE is these days - it is PocketPC. And it mentions Linux separately, which is good both because some people do not consider Linux to be Unix and because it *should* be mentioned. :)
So I am not sure why we went back to the old bullet list. Feel free to merge them again somehow.
I would consider scratching this paragraph (too vague IMHO and that whole section gets a bit too "fluffy"): "Many meaningful and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and helps them understand the workings of the new technologies that they encounter everywhere in their everyday lives."
This paragraph is not entirely true (IIRC some newer images do not necessarily run on older VMs). I would also change "interpreter" to "virtual machine" in any case:
"Any image file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!)."
Strike "interpreter" in: "including the virtual machine interpreter"
Typos:
"Squeakís virtual machine" "as ìa portable"
In fact, there seems to be a general problem with quoting:
ìa system as immediate and tactile as a sketch pad, in which you can effortlessly mingle writing, drawing, painting, and all the structured leverage of computer science. Moverover, imagine that every aspect of that system is described in itself and equally amenable to examination and composition.î
I guess it should be "could" in this sentence: "that should be programmed"
Ok, feel free to do whatever you feel is good. I just feel slightly annoyed that the text I worked with quite a lot more or less got "thrown away".
regards, Göran
From: Göran Krampe goran@krampe.se To: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 09:50:04 +0100 (CET)
Hi all!
Larry Trutter skrev:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
Ok, here comes a lengthy feedback post. Sorry for being late but I didn't want to give feedback since I felt I was the wrong guy doing it (since I wrote the frontpage which had much of this text - but IMHO in a carefully discussed and improved form). But here goes anyway:
First sentence: "Squeak is a highly portable"
Possibly the first parts of this paragraph feel a bit redundant after the bullet list:
"Every release includes platform-independent support for color, sound,network access, and a full complement of developer tools with complete source code."
Perhaps:
"Every release includes the complete source code for everything, including developments tools."
I incorporated your concise wording.
This part feels old and I believe my version (which has been removed) was better: "Windows NT, XP, Windows CE(it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX),"
...should perhaps be like this: "most flavors of Windows including CE/PocketPC, all common flavors of UNIX and Linux, Acorn RiscOS, OS/2 and even a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D)."
I'm more inclined to strike out that entire paragraph and use your bullet list since it is much more concise. The About page is getting a little bit long anyway. If it's ok with the community to use your list, I'll do just that and strike out that paragraph.
So I am not sure why we went back to the old bullet list. Feel free to merge them again somehow.
I can either attempt to merge the two lists or simply just use your list to completely replace the old list. I guess I'm asking the community if it is ok to just use Goran's list or is there any portion of the "old" bullet list that should be retained at all? Most of those old list directly came from Dan Ingall's "Back to the Future" or his other writings back in 1998-2000 time period.
I would consider scratching this paragraph (too vague IMHO and that whole section gets a bit too "fluffy"): "Many meaningful and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and helps them understand the workings of the new technologies that they encounter everywhere in their everyday lives."
It was an attempt to showcase the educational aspect of Squeak and what we are hoping to achieve for education. I'm unsure what is meant by "fluffy"?
This paragraph is not entirely true (IIRC some newer images do not necessarily run on older VMs). I would also change "interpreter" to "virtual machine" in any case:
"Any image file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!)."
Strike "interpreter" in: "including the virtual machine interpreter"
I made the change.
Typos:
"Squeakís virtual machine" "as ìa portable"
Corrected.
In fact, there seems to be a general problem with quoting:
ìa system as immediate and tactile as a sketch pad, in which you can effortlessly mingle writing, drawing, painting, and all the structured leverage of computer science. Moverover, imagine that every aspect of that system is described in itself and equally amenable to examination and composition.î
Corrected
I guess it should be "could" in this sentence: "that should be programmed"
The reason why I used "should" is that it conveys that one of the goals that the community is trying to achieve. I don't think we are at the point where end user "could" do it now. If it is not clear, let me know how I can reword it better.
Thanks for your valuable input! Having feedback really helps. -Larry Trutter
_________________________________________________________________
From predictions to trailers, check out the MSN Entertainment Guide to the
Academy Awards® http://movies.msn.com/movies/oscars2007/?icid=ncoscartagline1
I like your text, Göran. I think you write very well! As you know, my personal preference was that I thought the front page should not contain lengthy text. But, that's just a matter of style, and only my opinion.
Regarding the front page: what I wanted to do is to have a very nice concise paragraph encapsulating all of your text on the front page. Hard to do. If you think you can improve on the front page it would be great.
Larry Trutter wrote:
From: Göran Krampe goran@krampe.se To: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 09:50:04 +0100 (CET)
Hi all!
Larry Trutter skrev:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
Ok, here comes a lengthy feedback post. Sorry for being late but I didn't want to give feedback since I felt I was the wrong guy doing it (since I wrote the frontpage which had much of this text - but IMHO in a carefully discussed and improved form). But here goes anyway:
First sentence: "Squeak is a highly portable"
Possibly the first parts of this paragraph feel a bit redundant after the bullet list:
"Every release includes platform-independent support for color, sound,network access, and a full complement of developer tools with complete source code."
Perhaps:
"Every release includes the complete source code for everything, including developments tools."
I incorporated your concise wording.
This part feels old and I believe my version (which has been removed) was better: "Windows NT, XP, Windows CE(it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX),"
...should perhaps be like this: "most flavors of Windows including CE/PocketPC, all common flavors of UNIX and Linux, Acorn RiscOS, OS/2 and even a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D)."
I'm more inclined to strike out that entire paragraph and use your bullet list since it is much more concise. The About page is getting a little bit long anyway. If it's ok with the community to use your list, I'll do just that and strike out that paragraph.
So I am not sure why we went back to the old bullet list. Feel free to merge them again somehow.
I can either attempt to merge the two lists or simply just use your list to completely replace the old list. I guess I'm asking the community if it is ok to just use Goran's list or is there any portion of the "old" bullet list that should be retained at all? Most of those old list directly came from Dan Ingall's "Back to the Future" or his other writings back in 1998-2000 time period.
I would consider scratching this paragraph (too vague IMHO and that whole section gets a bit too "fluffy"): "Many meaningful and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and helps them understand the workings of the new technologies that they encounter everywhere in their everyday lives."
It was an attempt to showcase the educational aspect of Squeak and what we are hoping to achieve for education. I'm unsure what is meant by "fluffy"?
This paragraph is not entirely true (IIRC some newer images do not necessarily run on older VMs). I would also change "interpreter" to "virtual machine" in any case:
"Any image file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!)."
Strike "interpreter" in: "including the virtual machine interpreter"
I made the change.
Typos:
"Squeakís virtual machine" "as ìa portable"
Corrected.
In fact, there seems to be a general problem with quoting:
ìa system as immediate and tactile as a sketch pad, in which you can effortlessly mingle writing, drawing, painting, and all the structured leverage of computer science. Moverover, imagine that every aspect of that system is described in itself and equally amenable to examination and composition.î
Corrected
I guess it should be "could" in this sentence: "that should be programmed"
The reason why I used "should" is that it conveys that one of the goals that the community is trying to achieve. I don't think we are at the point where end user "could" do it now. If it is not clear, let me know how I can reword it better.
Thanks for your valuable input! Having feedback really helps. -Larry Trutter
From predictions to trailers, check out the MSN Entertainment Guide to the
Academy Awards® http://movies.msn.com/movies/oscars2007/?icid=ncoscartagline1
Webteam mailing list Webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/webteam
H folks!
I like your text, Göran. I think you write very well!
Thanks. :)
As you know, my personal preference was that I thought the front page should not contain lengthy text. But, that's just a matter of style, and only my opinion.
I can sympathize with that - and in fact (reading my post again) I might have sounded like I disapproved with that change, but that is not the case - I was more wondering why "my" text was not being reused in the About page, since it in many parts was an improved version of the original Dan-text.
Regarding the front page: what I wanted to do is to have a very nice concise paragraph encapsulating all of your text on the front page. Hard to do. If you think you can improve on the front page it would be great.
No, sorry for the misunderstanding - the front page is fine - I actually like the current version (I think). I just want the About page to be "the best it can be". :)
regards, Göran
Göran Krampe wrote:
- I was more wondering why "my" text was not being reused in the About
page, since it in many parts was an improved version of the original Dan-text.
The goal was to take the front page text and appropriately add it/merge it to the "About" page. That is tough because both had great text but in different formats.
From: Brad Fuller brad@bradfuller.com To: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:04:14 -0800
Göran Krampe wrote:
- I was more wondering why "my" text was not being reused in the About
page, since it in many parts was an improved version of the original Dan-text.
The goal was to take the front page text and appropriately add it/merge it to the "About" page. That is tough because both had great text but in different formats.
I agree since the entire task is tougher than I anticipated.
I made an attempt to merge Goran's text with the older text while trying to not lose the important points about Squeak. Hopefully, my perception of Squeak's important points didn't deviate much from everyone else's.
Also, I simplified the Platform support paragraph.
And I moved the "Squeak runs bit-identical" paragraph back to "What's Cool" section about Squeak because that is still cool! :)
Check out http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . Hopefully, I didn't make things worse.
-Larry Trutter
_________________________________________________________________ Dont miss your chance to WIN 10 hours of private jet travel from Microsoft Office Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0540002499mrt/direct/01/
Looks good. A few comments:
These could be merge, or better, the first sentence can be removed. ---
Squeak is used as a tool for research on how computers can enhance and amplify learning; specifically, work in using computers to find new ways to reach children with powerful ideas of math and science.
Squeak is used to enhance and amplify learning by utilizing new ways to teach children powerful ideas about math and science. One successful environment, Etoys http://www.squeakland.org/whatis/tutorials.html, enables children to learn by building, playing and simulating the physical world. Etoys extends the experience via a simple and powerful user interface that allows children to author and access everything around them. ---- add "the"
or the creation of advanced dynamic web sites using the highly
---
The only problem with this is that "image" has not been defined yet.
"Squeak runs bit-identical images across it"
---
Maybe change: All of this has attracted many of the best and most experienced Smalltalk programmers and implementers in the world. to Their work has attracted many of the best and most experienced Smalltalk programmers and implementers in the world.
---
Change: Smalltalk is invented to to Smalltalk was invented to implement the Dynabook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook and was conceived
However, I don't think this is necessarily true. I realize Alan had dynabook in mind, but I don't know if Smalltalk was invented for the dynabook.
----
Should we add licensing info here? I'm wondering if we should leave it out. It is changing and if people need to read the license, they can do so by taking the link on the left side of the site. That way we don't have to update the license info in several places.
What do others think?
Larry Trutter wrote:
From: Brad Fuller brad@bradfuller.com To: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:04:14 -0800
Göran Krampe wrote:
- I was more wondering why "my" text was not being reused in the About
page, since it in many parts was an improved version of the original Dan-text.
The goal was to take the front page text and appropriately add it/merge it to the "About" page. That is tough because both had great text but in different formats.
I agree since the entire task is tougher than I anticipated.
I made an attempt to merge Goran's text with the older text while trying to not lose the important points about Squeak. Hopefully, my perception of Squeak's important points didn't deviate much from everyone else's.
Also, I simplified the Platform support paragraph.
And I moved the "Squeak runs bit-identical" paragraph back to "What's Cool" section about Squeak because that is still cool! :)
Check out http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . Hopefully, I didn't make things worse.
-Larry Trutter
Don’t miss your chance to WIN 10 hours of private jet travel from Microsoft Office Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0540002499mrt/direct/01/
From: Brad Fuller brad@bradfuller.com To: Larry Trutter stargazerzero@hotmail.com CC: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:38:56 -0800
Looks good. A few comments:
The only problem with this is that "image" has not been defined yet.
"Squeak runs bit-identical images across it"
I linked the word "images" to a definition of image in the Squeak swiki: http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/2213
Change: Smalltalk is invented to to Smalltalk was invented to implement the Dynabook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook and was conceived
However, I don't think this is necessarily true. I realize Alan had dynabook in mind, but I don't know if Smalltalk was invented for the dynabook.
It was an unsuccessful attempt to transition to the Dynabook paragraph. So I got rid of "Smalltalk was.." part of the sentence.
Should we add licensing info here? I'm wondering if we should leave it out. It is changing and if people need to read the license, they can do so by taking the link on the left side of the site. That way we don't have to update the license info in several places.
What do others think?
I agree that it should be taken out. Do others agree?
thanks, Larry Trutter
_________________________________________________________________
From predictions to trailers, check out the MSN Entertainment Guide to the
Academy Awards® http://movies.msn.com/movies/oscars2007/?icid=ncoscartagline1
Larry Trutter wrote:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
I'm not completely happy with the Dynabook paragraph - I think it might need some more work.
Let me know if any more improvements are needed!
some grammar:
--
Squeak is *A* highly portable, open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia facilities. Squeak is the vehicle *FOR* a wide range of projects from educational platforms to commercial web application development.
-- Needs a space between CE(it:
including Windows NT, XP, Windows CE(it runs on the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX),
--- How about combining the next two paragraphs and also fix the grammar. Something like:
Squeak is used extensively to enhance and amplify learning by utilizing new ways to reach children with powerful ideas about math and science. One successful environment, Etoys, enables children to learn by building, playing and simulating the physical world around them. Etoys extends the experience via a simple and powerful user interface that allows children to author and access all things around them.
--- Maybe put "What it is not" at the very end of the page?
--- Philosophy
I think this statement:
"The fundamental philosophy of Squeak is to write everything in Smalltalk"
Is a developer's reaction to a more fundamental philosophical position:
"Smalltalk allows users authoring and access to all things."
The more basic smalltalk philosophy would be better here rather than a developer's perspective. I could amplify on this, if you'd like.
--- Squeak Support
This statement is rather strong here: "Official standards and product support are the enemies of change. Next to universal access, malleability is the prime figure of merit for Squeak. It is our intention for Squeak to evolve."
It even makes it sound like there is no support structure for Squeak. And,that isn't so. Standards are not a bad thing, either. I don't have an option here, though. I just think it would be better if this wasn't so strong. Maybe start the paragraph off with something like:
"One of the strengths of Squeak is that it continually evolves"
I think the next sentences need to be refuted. Since it is not, it sounds like a statement is being made that Squeak, indeed, is dependent on the whims of a couple of users:
"Some people feel tentative about using a system that appears to be dependent on the whimsical enthusiasm of a couple of wizards. Who could make product plans upon such shifting sands?"
Maybe add something to put people's minds at ease. Something like: "The Squeak developer community is dedicated, diverse and highly experienced. Squeak continues to evolve... blah... etc..." Then begin with "Each Squeak release includes everything..."
Then end with:
"Controlling your personal destiny is a fundamental philosophy of Squeak and.... etc."
And tie this to the Philosophy section.
Alternatively, you could eliminate the Squeak Support section and include these ideas in the Philosophy section.
From: Brad Fuller brad@bradfuller.com To: Larry Trutter stargazerzero@hotmail.com CC: webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org Subject: Re: [Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2007 12:12:39 -0800
Larry Trutter wrote:
The latest version of the draft is now at http://wwwtest.squeak.org/About/ . All the links are there and tested. Feel free to double-check.
Let me know if any more improvements are needed!
Philosophy
I think this statement:
"The fundamental philosophy of Squeak is to write everything in Smalltalk"
Is a developer's reaction to a more fundamental philosophical position:
"Smalltalk allows users authoring and access to all things."
The more basic smalltalk philosophy would be better here rather than a developer's perspective. I could amplify on this, if you'd like.
I replaced the paragraph with someting more basic. If this is not what you had in mind, please feel free to toss it out and replace it.
Squeak Support
I tossed out the whole section. It seems, to me, that it is written in an era before open source became popular. With that in mind, I created a very brief statement which directs the reader to the community how-to page.
All other corrections/modifications are made and the test "About" page is updated.
-Larry Trutter
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Great, Larry. I read Brads comment and think they are good changes.
Karl
webteam@lists.squeakfoundation.org
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Brad Fuller -
Göran Krampe -
karl -
Larry Trutter