Hi!
Really wrong forum, but what the heck.
Bert Freudenberg wrote:
Most in the squeak.org community do not think of Squeak as a product with users, but rather as a tool they only use themselves. E.g., there is even resistance to creating a squeak-users mailing list aimed at Smalltalk developers who just want to use Squeak for developing :/
Interesting. I wonder if I am one of those "resisting". When I heard the idea of creating a squeak-users list I first thought that, no, Squeak is not polished enough to be just "used" as a multimedia environment.
Because I didn't think of "using" to possibly could have meant "using for development"! Yeah, call me daft.
Another reason is probably that I don't understand why anyone would only want to "use" Squeak without any interest in how it is being moved forward nor how it works inside. When you develop in Squeak you typically invest in its future, so why on earth would you not be considering yourself a member of the "squeak-dev" community?
Anyway, for other "development tools" I can see myself more clearly as a "user" - but a Smalltalk environment is so intertwined with itself that I don't see that separation. I also do not like squeak-dev turning into some kind of "club for the mighty developers". Which is why I was hesitant about the beginners list too - although I probably was wrong there.
[SNIP]
They will have an open ear to your concerns.
I do think Squeakers in general have a very "open ear" - it is not ears we lack, it is time to spend in solving problems that someone else has that we lack. :) At least most of us lack it.
The VM guys here basically churn away on keeping up the illusion that Squeak simply works ;)
- Bert -
regards, Göran