Re: Big Bang [Re: Proposal for Squeak 3.8 release schedule]Marcus Denker wrote:

Am 14.10.2004 um 07:58 schrieb Andreas Raab:

...

Hi Goran,

Let me try to answer your questions:

...

1. Is Tweak meant to replace Morphic alltogether in the long run? Or

is it only replacing parts of Morphic?

It is clearly intended to be a replacement of Morphic. Replacing "parts" makes little or no sense as it would break too many things that need fixing. However, we realize and acknowledge the fact that Morphic will stick around for a long time (similar to MVC which is still in Squeak) and the only thing we am working on is the ability to get rid of both MVC and Morphic if that is desirable (which it will for packaging purposes but not for a long time as most of the tools are available for Morphic).

The tools are in Morphic now, but porting them to Tweak is quite simple.

Is there any other reason not to drop both Morphic and MVC now ?

...

I think the best way to describe the *current* relation between Squeak, Croquet and Tweak is to say: Squeak is being used by both. Both systems have a set of requirements which are met by Squeak - mostly that of having a fairly simple late-bound object system with good programming tools and -most importantly- the ability to change everything top-to-bottom. I fully expect to port both forward to the next Squeak release which contains m17n (again "using" Squeak) but whether that's going to stay that way is a different question.

I'm quite sure that if there would be a TeaTime enabled tweak based system (using that new VM stuff), I would use it for all my work. As would most other people, I guess. For me, Squeak was and is about moving forward. Not implementing the past.

So at that point, there would just be no "next release" of Squeak in the sense of today's Squeak, as everybody would be contributing to the new system. (Of course, this is just playing with words: For me, "Squeak" never meant the hack based on St80 we have now, but a vision for a new system of the future).

One thing (and that is really important): It would be good to have some idea of how and when this transitions will happen. Will it be a hard switch or a gradual transition? If we all know that we will use "the new thing" it would be nice to be able to put work into that at some point instead of something that later does not get used. (e.g. the harvesting I do is mostly completly not relevant for me personally. If I would put as much work into another release as I did in 3.7 and 3.8, and later nobody uses it, that would not be fun.

Of course, just stopping "because there will be something better in the future" is not the right thing, either. Not doing the trivial improvement because a better one might come in the future is a great way of making sure that nothing happens at all.

Somehow, I lost the respond from the Croqueteers on the issues that Marcus raised.

Cheers,

PhiHo.