Nick Ager wrote:

Hi,

What is the difference between the "Package Universe Browser" and "SqueakMap Package Loader"?

On a related question, I'm trying to understand the difference between packages listed in SqueakMap/Universe Browser and those listed in the "Monticello Browser". I understand that Monticello is a version control system which contains the latest although not necessarly stable release code whereas the packages listed in SqueakMap/Universe Browser should link to stable releases of the code. Is this understanding correct? Is packaging part of an image release cycle or a separate process?

Okay; for starters, it's all a big mess. That's what you get with lots of contributers with lots of ideas. I don't think the mess is a bad thing; good ideas will survive and bad ideas will eventually be replaced.

SqueakMap is a published list of packages that has been in Squeak from 3.4 through to 3.9. The idea is that you can just download and install a package easily from within the SqueakMap browser. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that the package you select will work with the version of Squeak you're running.

The Universe Browser is new in 3.10, and follows the same idea, but now the packages in a "universe" are known to work together well. For example, there's a "3.10" universe, that, in theory, you should be able to load and use any package from. That's the extent of my knowledge.

Like you say, Monticello is a version control tool where each "version" is a package file (with the extension ".mcz"). While it can load packages, that's not its intention. It only stores the locations of available repositories for a package as a convenience to the developer.

Michael.