... Once you've got them together you can easily post your own *new* MPSS to SqueakMap which combines the function of the other two.
So basically, either users duplicate the integration work for combinations of packages not prepared before, ...
If a combination wasn't prepared and published before then, by definition, that combination hasn't been meaningful enough as a singularity for anyone to have performed such integration. Since it hasn't been done before, there's no duplication of work.
.. or they publish their combination for others to reuse, resulting in as many new specialized combination packages ?
First, this kinda defeats the purpose of a package system to me, and
You forgot to do step 1. Reduce your expectation of SqueakMap from being a "packaging system". That's Monticello. Instead, SqueakMap is just a showroom from which you expect to be able to *easily* review and learn about a package. This is why I encourage SqueakMap packages to not be shy about pop-ups to introduce the package to the user, even utilising Squeaks multimedia capabilities in an engaging way if possible. Talk about on-line documentation and the attraction that would be for new users (and me too!).
I really like what OSProcess does when it loads up, showing you the current VM process and some docuementation.
second, what difference does that make w.r.t MC configurations?
A one-way bridge from MC to SqueakMap would not be difficult or time-consuming to build. MC Configurations has been useful for me in that bridge because it allows one-click generation of a self-installing SAR (all packages in order) that I simply upload to SqueakMap. Of course, it might be nice to have a one-click including SqueakMap upload directly from the image...
-- Damien Pollet type less, do more [ | ] http://people.untyped.org/damien.pollet