[Squeakfoundation]Order of business ...

[Jimmie Houchin]

I agree that Squeak OO, GUI, portability and scope are strong points.

While we may not have a quote "best of breed" app in any particular area 
as you say we have many (I hate to put this way) "good enough) apps.

I believe these apps and others (as they come) will grow and improve as 
3.4 matures. I believe as apps are extracted (from the image) or are 
developed (new) in SM independent manner that the apps will continue to 
improve in quality.

Due to the strengths of Squeak the apps you mentioned and other can 
become either best of breed or top tier apps in their area.

I would love to see Celeste become a best of breed email app. In my 
opinion I don't like much in the way of Windows or Mac email clients (or 
Linux for that matter). I would love to use Celeste but its UI doesn't 
currently meet my needs. But it will :).

Because apps in Squeak are in a live environment they can improve 
magnitudes in short order.

As discussed on the squeak-dev Squeak's living environment is also to me 
a killer app aspect. Because of this no app is ever necessarily stagnate.

 From what I've read I'll agree with the PowerPoint sentiments. I've 
never used either (PP or BookMorph) but do hope to use Squeak for 
presentations in the future.

I don't believe a "sales" job is required merely educational and 
informational. "Soft sales" if you will. As people become familiar with 
Squeak's philosophy and functionality many will be intrigued and 
explore. As Squeak's reality aproaches its potential, it will have 
converts. We have lost many along the wayside because of the diference 
between reality and potential. Squeak 3.4 brings them much closer.

I know I've seen many from the Python community come and go. I've stayed 
because I saw the potential which I've seen nowhere else. The potential 
is unequaled.

With Squeak 3.4 and Croquet, those of us who want to use Squeak as our 
"Operating Environment" (our primary environment) will be increasingly 
enabled. As the virtues increase it will only become easier.

Ohhhhhh!!!! I better stop. I'm beginning to preach to the choir. :)

Jimmie Houchin



Cees de Groot wrote:
>  <danielv@netvision.net.il> said:
> 
>>Sounds like we have some expertise here. So what do we have to offer
>>those general communities? Can we "sell" them Swiki's, or anything else
>>we already have? is anyone in their lists, and knows what they need?
> 
> Let's take it step by step - first some general brand marketing, because
> no-one is going to be interested in Wiki implementation number 42 when they
> have never heard of Squeak. Probably play on the strong points: 
> - Heritage. In the area of OO and GUI's, Squeak is top breed;
> - Portability. The only platform that runs bit-identical on X (how many?)
>   machines, including multimedia;
> - Scope. From schoolkids to experienced software developers. 
> Just tout it as the #1 21st century computing platform - given enough
> follow-up information, people will pick what they need themselves. 
> 
> There really aren't much singular strong points in Squeak - IMHO, it's the
> quantity that counts more than the quality. DVS will be less (for the time
> being) than StORE; Swiki is not the best Wiki; there's better FM synthesis
> stuff around, nicer MP3 players, and certainly better webbrowsers. But the
> fact that you get it all without having to think (much) about portability is
> what counts. 
> 
> I do think that as a 'killer app', we should try to see whether we can come up
> with power-point like functionality. If I'm correct, the largest problem at
> the moment is that the BookMorph doesn't work good enough (b/c, AFAIK - I'm a
> moronic nitwit kind of guy in the Morphic area - it doesn't have the ability
> to pop into full-screen mode you are used to from presentation software). When
> we have something that can do simple presentations well, and we can show (with
> demos) that you're basically unlimited in what you can do (covering the scope
> from PowerPoint to Director, platform-independent), we might have something we
> could sell specifically to the 'general' community.