What is Squeak?

lex at cc.gatech.edu lex at cc.gatech.edu
Sun Dec 19 13:57:47 UTC 2004


I entirely disagree that it is pointless to analyze questions like "what
is squeak".  There are plenty of ways we can go about it, and in the
end, we really must decide this before we can decide, for example, what
goes on in the main image.

The Back to the Future article gives the main definition of what Squeak
started as.  I don't see any particular reason to back off from it
today.  Go read it on the Swiki if you care.

I think we should make Squeak recognizable to people who have heard of
it via public means like Alan's talks and the nublue book.

I certainly think Squeak should remain a good research vehicle in
various way.  In general, this says nothing, because Squeak will remain
such a thing no matter what we do to it.  However, there are some
specific things we might want to watch out for, like: being able to mess
with the language, being able to replace the graphics, being able to
port Squeak quickly (this is something that is fading, btw!), being able
to mess with the programming tools...  There are many ways Squeak is
maleable and we'd like to keep it that way.  Also, notice that many
changes (like Services and Omnibrowser) are aimed at making Squeak
*more* malleable in specific ways.  That's great, so long of course that
we want the malleability that is gain.

And finally, I hope we can make the current Squeak download amenable to
all the great things that people are seeing in various conferences. 
Everyone who heard Nathanael talking about Traits, ought to be able to
grab Squeak and grab Traits and go to town.  And you can believe I will
try to make it so that everyone who hears about Chuck, can go download
it and run it without having to try this or that special version of
Squeak because everything is breaking all the time.

In the end, Squeak really is what we make of it.  But we've already
begun that process.  If you prefer, the question is not "What is
Squeak", but "What have we made Squeak" or "What are we making".

Lex



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