[feedback][SM][Monticello] packages systems

Stephan Rudlof sr at evolgo.de
Thu Jul 8 00:47:24 UTC 2004


Dear All!

I want to provide some feedback.

To me: I've heavily worked with Squeak a few years ago, made some pause
for different reasons and have now come back somewhat.

Note: the term 'package' means here an arbitrary amount of code
- building a semantic unit,
- separated from other code,
- in an arbitrary format,
- accessible by some URL.


Tools for Administrating and Providing Squeak Packages
------------------------------------------------------

To get an overview you have to look into many things.
There are tools for administrating and especially loading packages:
PackageLoader, MonticelloBrowser.
There are tools for generating packages: Monticello, ChangeSetBrowser,
other Browsers.
There are repositories:
- SqueakSource (http://kilana.unibe.ch:8888) for Monticello repositories,
- SqueakMap (http://map1.squeakfoundation.org/sm/) for packages in
arbitrary formats.
There is a web site for documentation of all this stuff:
- Squeak Swiki (http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/).


SqueakMap
---------
SM is great!


Monticello and SqueakMap
------------------------

It's difficult to see the best way for publishing a Monticello package:
- Directly at the SqueakMap server?
- Or at SqueakSource?
- Or at your own domain?
I assume that for collaborate work SqueakSource is the way to go.

The SM packages are shown in PackageLoader, but Monticello packages may
have some dependencies just shown in the MonticelloBrowser.


Dependency System
-----------------
A SM dependency mechanism is lacking.
There is some Monticello depency mechanism.
If SM gets one soon the ...


Namespaces
----------
I remember the efforts to install Environments for separating
namespaces, which habe been abandoned after a first trial to work with them.
But without namespaces adding methods to classes more than one package
depends on is potentially dangerous since it can break things.
-- 
Stephan Rudlof (sr at evolgo.de)
   "Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis.
    You can't simply say, 'Today I will be brilliant.'"
    -- Kirk, "The Ultimate Computer", stardate 4731.3



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