Squeakfoundation May 2001

squeakfoundation@lists.squeakfoundation.org

29 participants
36 discussions

Principle proposal.
by Tim Rowledge 12 May '01

12 May '01

Since I haven't seen any interesting action here for a while I thought it was about time somebody suggested principles for the foundation. 1. the ends justify the means. hacking python.org, javasoft.com and other agencies of repression, wetwork, blackmail and general nastiness is encouraged. 2. don't like all this wishy-washy democracy stuff. We didn't bother with it in the Empire and I don't see why we should waste time on it now. 3. the Foundation will appoint me as Grand President For Life and everyone that ever uses Squeak will henceforth tithe 25% of their gross salary to me. 4. any questions? No? Good; you're learning. President Tim.

6 13

Squeak mailing list update
by cg＠cdegroot.com 11 May '01

11 May '01

Just in case you missed it in the flood of Squeak mailing list messages, here's what I just sent to that list re the status of SqF: --- 8< ----- From: cg(a)cdegroot.com (Cees de Groot) Subject: Squeak Foundation news Date: 11 May 2001 23:26:43 +0200 Message-ID: <9dhkmv$t5a$1(a)home.cdegroot.com> The squeakfoundation list was a bit quiet this week, so progress was not as good as some hoped for. One reason might be that people have the wrong ideas about SqF - rumours are that some of you think we're an evil bunch trying to fork Squeak into something Stable and drive it down the wrongly coloured plane. The best clarification is the current Statement of Purpose for SqF: To assist in the evolution of Squeak into its ultimate expression as an exquisite personal and collaborative computing environment that is open, well supported, and freely available across the great majority of modern platforms and operating systems. Which, by intention, is very broad and basically says "we want to do anything that we think is good for Squeak". Tim already volunteered to dress up as Mickey Mouse, earning some hard-needed cash for the Foundation ;-) (actually he volunteered to be Evil President, for Life, I'm just trying to protect his reputation). What may not have helped either in involving you is my announcement that the next bit, "define a set of Principles", might actually involve work. Well, it turns out that this work may be fun and shed some light on what SqF will be about - when I tried to draw up an initial set of principles by copying the ones from the Northern Atlantic Marine Association, a club of fishermen, ecologists, and whatnot that tries to balance protection and exploitation of a common good, it turned out that what NAMA wants with their chunk of ocean is quite close to what SqF could want with a chunk of open source code. Both are, in a sense, ecosystems and a common/public good. So defining principles might turn out to be something interesting and stimulating after all. Quick - join the Squeak Foundation mailing list before you miss out the good bits! http://www.squeakfoundation.org/ has all the details. -- Cees de Groot http://www.cdegroot.com <cg(a)cdegroot.com> GnuPG 1024D/E0989E8B 0016 F679 F38D 5946 4ECD 1986 F303 937F E098 9E8B

1 0

Re: [Squeakfoundation]Proposal: vote for Purpose
by John Briggs 06 May '01

06 May '01

On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 12:24:28AM +0200, Cees de Groot wrote: > I've reviewed the Swiki page, and I think the best proposal is Dwight's: > > > To assist in the evolution of Squeak into its ultimate expression as > > an exquisite personal and collaborative computing environment that is > > open, well supported, and freely available across the great majority > > of modern platforms and operating systems. > I also vote for this proposal as our initial statement of purpose. Regards John Briggs.

1 0

Squeak Foundation update
by cg＠cdegroot.com 05 May '01

05 May '01

Hi all Squeakers, Here's another update on the state of affairs of the Squeak Foundation. Since the last update, we: - Grabbed the .org and .com. Several services were already operating under squeakfoundation.org, I just setup name service and a redirect for http://www.squeakfoundation.org to the Swiki so people don't have to remember long URLs (if it's not working right away, that's due to nameserver refreshes and stuff - have patience). - Agreed to agree on a purpose and move on. I updated the Purpose Swiki page and also put some content on the Principles page. It would be great if more people could join the club, because setting up the Principles bit will probably involve quite some work. Regards, Cees -- Cees de Groot http://www.cdegroot.com <cg(a)cdegroot.com> GnuPG 1024D/E0989E8B 0016 F679 F38D 5946 4ECD 1986 F303 937F E098 9E8B

1 0

Greetings
by Dan Ingalls 02 May '01

02 May '01

Folks - I've just joined the SqF mail list. My apologies for not having joined in sooner. Anyway, it looks like I have some catching up to do. At first glance a lot of good thinking has already taken place. Then I'll try to say a few words about where SqC is likely going in the next year, and what the best way would be for us to work together with the rest of the community through a Squeak Foundation. We already have some ideas about this, but first I want to read what has already been said here. Thanks - Dan PS: I have a favor to ask: To look at the old messages, I have to use the archive. If it would be easy for any of you to forward all the messages to me, then I could read them in my normal mail system. If any of you would be willing to do this, please send a message *to me*, and I'll confirm back (to avoid everyone forwarding N copies of all the messages). Thanks

3 3

A Draft for the Relationship Between SqF and SqC.
by Dan Ingalls 02 May '01

02 May '01

Folks - Squeak Central's Charter First of all, for juxtaposition with the evolving charter for SqF, here's a charter for Squeak Central: To bring science to life for children of all ages. A goal that follows directly is: To produce a computing environment that brings science to life for children of all ages. [Note: I haven't really cleared this with anyone, but it's close enough for discussing the relationship between Squeak Central and the Squeak Foundation to be (*)]. Imagine an environment that could be approached as a music application, a numerical application, a graphics application, or a symbolic application. In every area, the underlying functionality is accessible to the user, just as are the top-level user functions. In this way the operations on musical entities, textual entities, graphical objects and numerical structures, would all be seen to be similar, described and combined in the same language. A system so uniform and so accessible would allow not only a deep understanding of how it worked, but also the ability to construct new and unanticipated active worlds limited only by the imagination of the user. This is what we mean by bringing science to life. Squeak is the underlying vehicle for this work. It is our system of choice because it is... Simple Powerful Malleable Open Runs Identically on all Major Platforms These features make the vehicle interesting and useful for a larger community of users than just SqC. SqC, by its charter, ultimately must choose to advance its goals over serving the needs of the rest of the Squeak community. Similarly, the Squeak community might decide at any time to advance its cause without concern for the goals of SqC (the so called "forking" option). I personally, and Squeak Central as a whole, have always enjoyed, and appreciated the value of, the social and technical contributions made by the larger Squeak community, and we have always tried to steer a course that would keep that synergy alive. A Charter for the Sqeak Foundation We have reached a crossroads where the complexity of the system, the volume of code offered for inclusion, the needs of the Squeak developers and users, all exceed the ability for a single person or even an informal affinity group to coordinate progress in a manner that is satisfactory to all. Hopefully the Squeak Foundation could take over the task of maintaining and improving Squeak as a vehicle in a manner that is an expression of, and serves the needs of, the Squeak community beyond (but including) Squeak Central. The Relationship Between SqC and SqF I would be willing, individually and as representative for Squeak Central as a whole, to work with or as a part of SqF to continue and maximize the synergy between SqC and the larger Squeak community. This would mean... Communicating near- and long-term plans of SqC to avoid duplication or conflict with related plans of SqF Addressing points of apparent conflict and contributing to solutions that maximize the synergy of a common language and computing environment. Contributing code that enhances the Squeak base system Producing and maintaining a special SqC image appropriate for our (SqC's) end users. This can be looked at as a role that is similar to other Squeak special interest groups, who might also have a similar relationship to SqF. In that sense SqF would actually be more "central" vis-a-vis the Squeak base image. Other satellite groups might have special interests such as TinySqueak for PDAs, MVC-Squeak for MVC apps, ServerSqueak for Swikis and the like, etc. SqC's special interest would be a Squeak that supports scriptable multimedia content distributed over the internet. Your Comments I think this kind of relationship could work for both SqC and for SqF as people have been envisioning it. But it's only one opinion at this point. I would like *not* to issue this message to the full Squeak list until there has been some discussion from those who have been thinking seriously about SqF, after they have had a chance to ponder this kind of relationship to SqC. Also, even if we all agreed mostly, it will take time to bring such a relationship into existence. I know it would be shocking to SqC, to suddenly have to migrate to a new base system such as Stable Squeak, and I'm sure SqF would not want urgent messages coming in from SqC saying we need to change this or that by tomorrow. Given time, though, I think SqC and the people seriously interested in SqF could set out a plan for orderly evolution of the base image and the various major extensions that would cover the needs of the Squeak user community. I have a bunch of thoughts on more specific project topics, but I'd like to hear back first from others on this list regarding how they feel this "position statement" fits in with what they would like SqF to become. Thanks - Dan, for all of us at Squeak Central (*) There's simply no substitute for hearing Alan's presentations. But another of our goals is: that there *will soon be* a substitute, accessible to everyone connected to the internet.

4 3

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

Squeakfoundation May 2001