[Squeakland] Why not an "intermediary " list ?

[Remi Sussan]

>
> Welcome!  I saw Tim Andrews already sent you a wonderful response,
> but I wanted to add my "welcome" and let you know that many
> home-educating parents are also "listening" and participating here.
> You're in the right place.  And, yes, the list can also be a resource
> for kids using Squeak, too!
>
> The majority of participants in this list are
> "less-than-hacker-level" programmers and many are novices, so we are
> (mostly) using the "Etoy" part of Squeak -- the "tile based"
> interface allowing kids and adults an "entry" into the ideas of
> object oriented programming and more to their interest, generally,
> project making, model making, and simulation building.  Having some
> knowledge with Smalltalk is wonderful, however, but not necessary.

Hello Kim,

May I take this thread opportunity to ask a question about what I feel to be
a lack in the Squeak community?
Why is there not an intermediary list for "less than hacker level"
programmers who want,  to go beyond the Etoy system and use all the
potentialities of squeak? I know of course that the "main list" is open to
newbies questions, but I'm afraid it is not really practical. The volume on
the main list is huge (more than 150 mails on a week-end, sometimes!),and
90%of the posts don't deal with topics suitable for newbies (in fact, to
tell the truth, there are many times when I don't even understand what is
the topic!). On the other end, squeakland is fine, but, AFAIK, is almost
interested in Etoys and educational issues. I think there is definitively a
place for an other list, dealing with squeak as a way to create
applications, as an "idea processor" as Alan Kay names it, in order to
interest people, who, like me, are not even professional programmers but
want to use squeak as a way to express their ideas (I think of course
especially about multimedia issues, such as Wonderland), but find frequently
difficult the lack of documentation for their level (Yes, I have  the books,
and I can say many questions remain unanswered!). Such a list would generate
automatically, through its archives, a precious documentation..

Of course, nothing forbids somebody (including me) to create such a list
independantly at yahoogroups. But I suppose it would be better if it was,
more or less, an "official" list...What do you think?

Bye!
Rémi