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<div>Folks -<br>
<br>
A number of people have asked outright what's going on with Squeak
Central and others may be wondering the same but not asking.<br>
<br>
I thought I would take a little time out to bring everyone up to date,
not only about to SqC itself, but also on some topics that spread out
into larger community goals.<br>
<br>
As you know, Squeak Central has reconstituted itself as an independent
research group. We are talking with a number of possible funding
sources as well as with various potential collaborators, but it would
not be appropriate to talk about details at this time. The
important thing is that we (and it is mainly Alan who is carrying this
process) do not want to rush into any imperfect relationships, so it
is taking some time to set up a situation that works for everyone
involved. I can tell you that our priorities remain...<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>staying together,<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>making a real
contribution to science and education,<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>continuing to work with the Squeak
community,<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>sharing our work actively and openly.<br>
<br>
Of course it is often a bit harder to focus during times of change,
but on the technical side, we've been putting energy into...<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>sundry details of enabling Squeak content
to load<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>successfully over the web into any browser<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>running on any OS on any computer,<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>continued work on the
scripting system and its<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>relationship to squeak as a whole so that<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>someday it can all be an organic whole, and<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>yet
it won't seem daunting at first encounter,<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>increased support for composition of media
within<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>Squeak, seeking that "sweet spot" where things<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>are still simple, but the capability spans<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>most
day-to-day needs while including the<br>
<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>leverage of an integrated programming environment.<br>
<br>
You'll see some of this work in the next spate of updates (today or
tomorrow), and probably more over the next month.<br>
<br>
After issuing the pending SqC updates in the next day or two, I will
contact the "iron men" who have helped in the past to see if
they would be willing to take a pass over recently submitted updates,
selecting those that seem solid, valuable, and making sure they work
with the latest updates. [This has been Stefan and Henrik in the
past, as well as Bob Arning and others in SqC. If you think you
would be good at this, and would like to help out, by all means send
me a message offline]. Finally, when they are assembled, I'll
issue these other updates.<br>
<br>
The process of judgement, QA, and integration of fixes and
enhancements is crucial to the ecology of an evolving open system.
It is a systemic contribution whose value is probably greater than any
single clever algorithm in the system. While this has been
handled informally in the past, either through my sporadic bursts of
responsibility, or with the help of other committed souls, I feel that
this would be an excellent early focus for SqF. It takes work,
but not too much, it needs to weigh the greatest good for the greatest
number in the system and in the community, it advances the system, and
it enhances the experience of a system that grows and improves with
each contribution from its community.<br>
<br>
The importance of merging contributions from the community brings to
mind the need for a package architecture in Squeak. Many people
have already pointed out this need (it's even a current topic), so I
don't think I need to argue the case. The benefits would
include:<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>a framework for ensuring the composability of the<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>various subsystems
that make up a complete squeak image.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>the ability
to pick and choose among various facilities<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>and configure an image with these and little more.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>the ability to build
minimal systems that are well-behaved<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>with regard to
facilities that are missing<br>
<br>
But perhaps the most important benefit for the community would be to
reduce the "tyranny of the monolithic image" by which too
little gets included in the release for fear it would be too hard to
strip out (Connectors, Cassowary, MathMorphs, for example), and too
much gets included in the release for fear that if it is not included
it will get orphaned as the system evolves forward (VM Construction,
Wonderland, Speech Synthesis for example).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I propose that we start a thread on this topic (message already
sent, though it was intended to follow) to assess what we have to
start with, and who might be willing to carry something through to
completion. As with many facilities in Squeak, I'm hoping we can
strike a reasonable compromise whereby most code looks no more
complicated, the kernel as delivered is well factored, people who just
want to hack will not be burdened, but those who wish to produce
well-behaved packages will have simple but adequate tools at their
disposal.</div>
<div><br>
Hopefully, just by coming together around this particular need, we'll
generate some good cooperative energy. But I think this project
is also special in that, when completed, it will be the context for an
entire future of better sharing and collaboration around Squeak.<br>
<br>
That's it for now<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>- Dan, for all of us at SqC</div>
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