Hi guys,

> Nathanael and adrian will certainly reply in length here.
> What I can tell you is that it is possible to have traits as package 
> but this is a sweet dream because each time the kernel will changes 
> then you will have to fix traits.

I agree with Stef. While it would be possible to have Traits as a
package, I don't think that this is a good idea for several reasons.
First, it would mean a lot of care and work to make sure that provide a
package that is compatible with newer Squeak releases. More importantly,
I think that it kind of defeats the prupose of a langauage extension
like traits if it is optional because this means that one cannot take
advantage of it in any of the non-optional code. 

However, the good news is that even if traits are part of the basic
image, people do not have to use and deal with them if they do not want
to. So, there really should be no disadvantage/change for people who
just want to ignore them. But as I said in my last email, I agree that
we should go step by step, and the next step is a beta that allows
people to see what it would mean to have traits in the image. I'm sure
that this will make things a lot less scary...

Cheers,
Nathanael

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
> Behalf Of stéphane ducasse
> Sent: Donnerstag, 24. Februar 2005 13:41
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> Subject: Re: To Traits Or Not To Traits (Was: Re: Stefs 
> roadmap for 3.9,time to get it nailed down)
> 
> 
> >
> > Well, these are the things I want to know :). If we can't 
> have it as a 
> > package - and there probably are strong arguments for not 
> having this 
> > as a package, I can envision it being hard to maintain that 
> way - then 
> > we will have to look hard at what effects it will have - 
> for example 
> > for those that wish to ignore it.
> 
> Nathanael and adrian will certainly reply in length here.
> What I can tell you is that it is possible to have traits as package 
> but this
> is a sweet dream because each time the kernel will changes 
> then you will have to fix traits. You will not be able to get 
> the full power of 
> traits because
> you will not be able to rethink to core Collection/Stream/UI using 
> morphic
> then each time you will load the traits package it will just 
> recompile 
> all
> your image = 30 min of recompilation. Then do you imagine 
> that nathanael or adrian will work on checking drifts over 
> the years especially since 
> this is
> really simple once in the image (because traits are simple).
> So a package = slow death but death.
> 
> Stef
> 
> 
>