Hi!
I stumbled over the laptop.org lists and decided to join. I noticed some posts about the SqueakMap loader, Yoshiki mentioned there is no simple way of opening it for an eToys user. Is there any interest in enabling it? And what would be a simple way? It has been prepared to be included in the Tools flap btw - you just need to regenerate the flaps to get it IIRC. But the loader itself is not targeted at this audience of course so:
Are there any existing thoughts about how we could enable SM for OLPC use? We could create specific categories for OLPC packages and we could even create a tailored SqueakMap Loader for OLPC users. Since Brian Rice and I are currently reviving SqueakMap development I am all ears.
regards, Göran
PS. The plans include decentralization of the map etc so it will be possible to set up special maps for OLPC use - just as you can set up Debian repositories for specific usage.
Göran,
Are there any existing thoughts about how we could enable SM for OLPC use? We could create specific categories for OLPC packages and we could even create a tailored SqueakMap Loader for OLPC users. Since Brian Rice and I are currently reviving SqueakMap development I am all ears.
We did incorporate a patch from Karl so that SM does work in the OLPC Etoys image. However, the concensus is not to spend too much time to support Smalltalk code development in the OLPC image. Opening a system browser requires similar amount of effort to SM. When I told this to Dan, he was visibly so dissapointed; of course it would be nice if millions of computers are Smalltalk/Squeak capable, but in the typical senario, providing good Etoys experience is the priority. If someobody is interested in development or downloading packages, he can figure out how to get SM loader in the OLPC Etoys image or even download the developers' image.
BTW, if the Etoys experience is good, the platform language doesn't have to be Squeak. In regards to longer-term strategy, we just try to keep current OLPC Etoys good enough and give us time to do a bit more radical things on different platforms.
Thank you for the suggestion. A distributed package system is nice to have for no matter what. At this moment, the SM is a great tool for developers, and in the future more school-children friendly version of such a system would be very helpful.
-- Yoshiki
etoys-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org