The Next Few Months

Folks -

Since a while before the release of Version 2.3, I promised to let everyone know what The Squeak Team will be up to for the next few months. With 2.3 out the door, we just spent some time on this, so I think I can give you a pretty good idea.

Here's the executive summary...

Move Squeak content onto external media and the web Make Squeak more approachable and usable by novices Integrate Balloon into Morphic Take a first stab at 3D in Squeak Release Jitter 2 and work toward native code

----------------- Squeak Pages Complete the ability of Squeak to store any Morphic world on a web page, and for any other Squeak to read that world in, active objects and all. Those active objects will include voice-over and event playback. We will know this project is successful when you can explore a full Squeak demo over the Internet starting from the Squeak Release. We will probably call that Squeak 3.0.

Modularity Enable the retraction of most changes at Project (or other) boundaries. This will allow one to run active content on web pages without permanent effect to the base image. It should also provide better protection between multiple developmental project in an image.

Surface Language Come up with a more approachable surface language for Squeak. Our only constraint is that any existing Squeak methods can be rendered into or read back from the new form. In addition to syntactic issues, this may include a simpler approach to events and control.

Programming Support Merge the functions of inspector and browser for simpler bottom-up programming. Simplify stepping, and enhance the display of program state when debugging.

Documentation Provide a self-documenting entry to Squeak with intuitive navigation into areas of major interest. By the time we are done, we would like to have covered the basics of presentation graphics, desktop publishing, internet access, music, 3D, and programming. It's a tall order, but documentation is our strength. One of the sentences in this paragraph is false.

Graphics Integrate Balloon fully with Morphic to provide anti-aliased display at any scale or rotation. Make balloon graphics editable both as curves and with the feel of sketching. Develop a layered 3D model that can be rendered reasonably via balloon with no need for special hardware, but that can also take advantage of special hardware or OS functions (via pluggable primitives) when available. Work toward a simple paradigm for building, manipulating and scripting 3D content.

Performance Complete Jitter 2T (T for threaded), and get it running on most platforms. Study its behavior, and work toward Jitter 2N (N for guess what). Jitter with native code should keep us happy for the rest of the millenium. [Jitter is really Ian Piumarta's baby, but we work so closely, it seems reasonable to include this as part of the plan] -------------------

This is our plan for the next month or two, maybe more. It's probably a reasonable characterization of what Squeak 3.0 will be like -- more approachable, more web-centered, faster, with better graphics. My target for having most of this in a releasable state is May 1.

That said, there is lots of other stuff that we probably won't be able to do. Part of our reason for disseminating this list is to give all of you a chance to reflect on the things we at Central are or are not planning to do. Then, to the extent you are interested or capable, you might organize your activities in a manner that would support or complement this general plan.

Onward and upward

- Dan (for TST)