[Squeakland] Current image to use?

[Bert Freudenberg]

Am Sonntag, 25.05.03 um 07:41 Uhr schrieb Christopher Sawtell (by way 
of Christopher Sawtell <csawtell at paradise.net.nz>):

> On Tue, 20 May 2003 03:20, Naala Brewer wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> What is the best current squeak image to use to create new projects 
>> and/or
>> interactive exploratory scaffolding?
>
> I use this one on Linux.
> chris at liberty chris $ squeak -version
> 3.4-1 #1 XShm Thu Mar 13 22:24:42 NZDT 2003 gcc 3.2.1
> Squeak3.4 of 1 March 2003 [latest update: #5170]
> Linux liberty.localnet 2.4.20-xfs_pre6 #1 Sat Mar 8 20:42:23 NZDT 2003 
> i686
> Pentium II (Deschutes) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
>
> It appears to work pretty well.

But this does not tell you anything about the image version, This is 
the virtual machine version (VM).

Squeak needs a VM to interface with the hardware.

To show the image version, use Cmd-Shift-W to bring up the World menu, 
choose "help..." and "about this system".

>> Does the Squeakland plugin image now
>> have the full capabilities that a Squeak image from "Squeak.Org" has?
>
> Unfortunately not. I am aware that the beautiful TrueType variable 
> font stuff
> is missing. There are probably other features which have been removed 
> in the
> interests of image file size and simplicity for the tyro user, but I 
> don't
> know what they are.

Actually, (almost?) no features have been removed. The Squeakland image 
is intended to provide a stable environment for non-expert users. Thus, 
not all the latest features of the main Squeak image have been 
incorporated.

>> Or is it still best to create baseline lessons and explorations in a
>> "Squeak.Org" Squeak image and then allow teachers/students/parents to
>> create off-shoot projects using the internet and the plugin image?
>
> No, the "Squeak.Org" Squeak image has more features than the plugin, 
> so if
>  you wish to share projects universally you have limit your projects 
> to the
>  plugin version. A most unfortunate limitation imho.

If there is something you specifically would like to see in the 
Squeakland image, just point it out in this list. Using the update 
mechanism it can rather easily be added which benefits all Squeakland 
users. Projects that you create after this inclusion can be shared 
without problems.

Regarding the TrueType font support: Yes, I vote for having that 
included. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same platform fonts 
installed. One way to solve this would be to include some free fonts 
with the image. Another way would be to embed all non-default fonts 
with your project, which might have legal problems when you distribute 
that project.

But adding some nice fonts to the image might suffice - what do you 
think? Incidentally, on the main Squeak list there was a discussion to 
include the Vera fonts 
(http://www.bitstream.com/categories/products/fonts/vera/) which were 
released for use in Open Source projects. I'm not sure how much larger 
the download would get when these were included.

-- Bert