is the Dynabook still a vision for Squeak ?

Stéphane Rollandin lecteur at zogotounga.net
Tue Dec 21 13:34:46 UTC 2004


hello list,


in another thread I just said the following:

 > Squeak is a wonderful experimental field, but it would be much better as
 > a multimedia development framework if the experimentations and new
 > features did respect some generally agreed "shape" which I believe is
 > still to be precisely defined and accepted.

... then just after sending the post I realized this "shape" is simply 
the Dynabook. I googled a bit and found that Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook

where indeed Squeak is designed as the latest software avatar of the 
Dynabook concept. I also find this very interesting page:

http://thinkubator.ccsp.sfu.ca/Dynabook


now considering the following points (I hope I'm not interpreting too 
much what I read, please bear with my approximations and errors):

- we have had an argument on thread "[RANT] Come on people! ;)" about 
direction in an Open Source project and the role of Guides.

- in parallel the thread "What is Squeak ?" shows that there are 
multiple fundamental points in the purpose and structure of Squeak where 
the so-called "community" does not agree on.

- we went close to have a fork happening with Berne people, while a 
discussion about the rewrite of the file system eventually showed that 
Flow could not currently be integrated with Squeak and that it belongs 
to Spoon (ex-Squat) which looks a lot like another fork.

- then we have Croquet and Tweak somewhere in space, with no clear idea 
(at least for some of us) of their exact relation to Squeak.

- there is as always the tension blue plane/pink plane and its 
consequences on backward compatibility matters.


considering those points, I would like to ask the Guides to initiate and 
conduct a discussion which aim would be to provide the current vision 
for Squeak.

I use the word "vision" (with the Dynabook as an example of what is a 
vision) so that it is clear that I am not asking for strong directions, 
nor strict rules, nor enforcements of any kind, but simply for a 
satisfying and generally agreed response to the question "what is 
Squeak, today ?". maybe there is no answer to this question and multiple 
forks (and/or Universes) are the way to go, I don't know. but I believe 
some context should be provided both for newcomers and for developpers 
about Squeak purpose and future.

what do other people think ?


Stef







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