Ron, thanks for starting with clarification of our _rationale and requirements_ rather than solutions. Those sound great!
Potential overall plan for your consideration.
Summary: Having a minimal Squeak Core image that enables users to easily find and load components to build a functional system has been a goal of the community for some time. The goal is to remove dependencies from packages (to the extent that it is possible) so that discrete components can act as Objects that are interchangeable. Because the API of objects is not always identical and because different implementations of core system components may provide features that are not identical, the final end point and dependencies of functioning systems may not always be compatible to other functioning systems. The results of this philosophy-of-componentization are that the community is enabled to build best of breed systems much like we see today. The mission of this project is to enable those that want to participate to easily integrate the best and right implementation of core components to build the best possible functioning system, to make the steps for creating a functioning systems easily repeatable from a single core image, and to make the steps for contributing to the modification of components that build systems transparent so that newer versions of components can be adopted by system builders (or replaced by newer implementations) easily. In short we want to exploit and support the Object in Object Oriented Programming.
Detail requirements:
- Squeak Core image that allows developers of systems to select and easily
load core components. 2. System configurations that identify core dependencies, including versions, packages, and external resources that are needed to easily rebuild a functioning system from Squeak Core. 3. The ability to update, replace, or remove components to build new configurations of a functioning system. 4. For the benefit of system developers: The ability to announce upgrades to component objects and application packages. 5. For the benefit of end users: The ability to announce upgrades to system configurations.
All the best,
Ron Teitelbaum Head Of Engineering 3d Immersive Collaboration Consulting ron@3dicc.com Follow Me On Twitter: @RonTeitelbaum www.3dicc.com