<diegogomezdeck at consultar.com> wrote:
> Hi everybody.
> 
> I see *too* much effort in creating procedures, tools, etc. but *too* few
> real work.
> 
> We spend the last weeks (months?) just talking and discussing. It's not the
> time to start to work?
> 
> We can't find the correct set of tools/methods if we don't use them!  To
> use them we need real work.
> 
> Please, let's move from talking to smalltalking.
> 
> Diego Gomez Deck


Hi Diego,

If I understand you correctly you mean that more coding should be done.
In a sense I agree in another I don't. There is a huge backlog
of code sitting in http://swiki.gsug.org:8080/SQFIXES/
To organize these bits and pieces is not an easy task.
Of course you might say that you are just using this
archive and integrate individual fixes in a larger whole
while at the same time coming up with new ones.
You are probably right.

There was a considerable amount of discussion around Morphic.
Finally you started the Morphic Cleaning Project which is moving 
at an amazing speed. 

A few days ago we saw the start of the Kernel Cleaning Project.
But it took several weeks to shape the goals of this project.
It will take its time to complete but we will like the results
in any case even if they don't show up until October.
(Besides of course the fix by Andreas' that recompiling
the whole class hierarchy becomes possible again)

Then there are of course the guides and the documentation team.
The duty of the guides besides release making (which need not
necessarily rest their duty) is to guide the process. 
So you really have to understand that they
generate discussion at the moment how to involve more people.
Today we even read that there are about 800 people on 
this list who just read emails but don't post.  A huge potential
for future volunteers. 

I can easily imagine that in the not so distant future we will probably 
have some 6 to 10 teams involving 30 ..60 participants. 
Later on one hundred is easily possible.

To coordinate these efforts and have a good integration of the 
results of these projects we necessarily need an effort
for procedures and tools. 
I think it it well spent time to avoid abusing peoples dedication
and time.

On of the next teams which will probably show up 
on the scene will be a unit testing team. 
Marcus Denker started an initiative
that he collects all the tests published with a [TEST] tag,
and publihes  them in a package on SqueakMap. 
This might lead to a testing team of which Marcus may or 
may not be a member as he is involved in a lot of other activities
(German Squeak Users Group - Squeak e.V.
http://www.squeak.de/)

Another team could be an integration testing, packaging
and distribution team. Actually we have a one person team
with Bruce O'Neel for years. But in the future there
will be more of this type of activity as the 
number of packages grows.
In the recent days people downloaded
3.4. loaded additional packages and reported the results
if it was unsuccessful to the list. These tasks could
be done in a more systematic way. This could for example
include as well taking a KNOPPIX distribution,
modify it so that it will be a Squeak only Distribution
CD. (KNOPPIX details see http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html)
It would be very cool having a CD which boots on any PC
and starts a Squeak image with SqueakMap and all its packages
and documentation on the CD. It might be even possible
to have a boot CD which works for PCs and Macs.

Looking at the packages still open for stewardships 
I think the discussion is needed. 
Yeah, for 3.5 I would  welcome that a decision is reached 
soon (cf.the thread on a minimal consensus for 3.5
which I started with you agreeing in the 
second post). 3.5 should be basically a release
which includes mostly bug fixing and heavy testing
to have a rock solid base for further work.

So we have several things in parallel.
Generally the whole thing only works if ideas are exchanged
and volunteers build teams.
I agree with you Diego, that we need more champions
like you, who take a lead by creating projects and leading
them. Gives us some more time please ....

A great thank you for your Morphic Cleaning Efforts.
I  downloaded what MCP did into a fresh 3.4 image
and I liked the fresh breeze very much!

Regards
Hannes