Working Together (was: re: newbie question (...)) [LONG]

Dan Ingalls Dan.Ingalls at disney.com
Wed Jul 14 22:00:41 UTC 1999


Folks -

This has been, and presumably will continue for a while to be, a really useful discussion.

Here's what I propose to do in the course of the next week...

1.  I am NOT going to deal with the big projects, some of which I listed in my first message on this topic (but keep reading).  Me feeling is that these will take time to sort out appropriately.

2.  I AM going to get out a 2.5 release as soon as I can stop communicating and get to work.

3.  At the time of the 2.5 release, a new version will also be declared on the update servers called, eg, 'Squeak2.6test'.  As before, bug-fixes and no-brainer enhancements will be issued for normal users of the 2.5 release.  Anyone who wishes to be a test pilot can simply advance their version to Squeak2.6test and fetch updates again.  Knowing that only test pilots will receive them, we can cheerfully issue the latest updates weekly (I will still buffer them, since we do occasionally foul up).

4.  Regarding the larger projects that Squeak needs but that we are not controlling, I want to try a new approach.  A couple of people have suggested voting.  I'm not really in favor of this and, what's more, it doesn't address the real problem.  My proposal is that we identify a list of such projects (we have a start already) and then, for each one, identify a group of 3 to 5 competent people to carry it through to completion.  I'm going to suggest that one of these people be from Squeak Central, even if they don't actually do any coding.  This will ensure that any concerns we have will get addressed, that we can track the progress, and that whoever is doing the hard work will know there is buy-in at Squeak Central from the start.  As used above, "to completion" means that it's ready to be issued as an update to the test pilots.

5.  There has also been some discussion of the need for several different flavors of image.  The two significant dimensions are stable-to-current and minimal-to-chockfull.  I believe that the bifurcation and guaranteed frequent distribution of updates answers the first need effectively.  In the spectrum of feature inclusion, I simply don't feel ready to specify the final solution.  Therefore 2.5 will be released chock-full as usual, but with a simple set of doits for removing most of what you would expect to be absent in a "basic" release.  Have lots of further thoughts that I will summarize in a separate message.

.... and one more thing ...
I like the term "Squeak Central" that several of you use.  "The Squeak Team" seems in retrospect to have been a rather elitist term for us.  Everyone on this list is part of The Squeak Team.  We are Central because of where we are in the process, and that seems fine.  So, with thanks for the contribution, I'll sign off as

	- Dan, for Squeak Central





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