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
More information about the Squeak-dev
mailing list
|