[SoC] topics

[Ralph Johnson]

The proposals tend to fall into several categories, and there are some
proposals that are very similar.  There are in fact five proposals
(from four people) that propose adding a module to Seaside to make it
like Ruby on Rails.  I think that this topic has the biggest potential
to make an impact.  Seaside is powerful, but it is not easy to learn
for people who do not already know Smalltalk well.  If there was a
"Seaside on Sails" that was as easy to learn as Ruby on Rails, Seaside
(and Squeak) could really take off.

It looks to me like these proposals are being overlooked by the
mentors, perhaps because none of us are web developers or have used
Ruby on Rails.  I haven't use it either, but I have read the
documentation and I can see why it has made such a big impact.  I'd
love to see Squeak capture some of that market.  So, I urge mentors to
read these proposals and to vote on them.

There are a lot of tool-oriented proposals.  I tend to like them, but
other mentors do, too, so I won't say much about them.

There are a couple of proposals to make something like "rake" for
Squeak.  I don't understand these.  I've built several large systems
in Smalltalk and never felt the need for make.  I don't know rake, and
when I read the proposals I feel like I am missing something.  Could
someone explain why we need something like this?

-Ralph