At 9:20 PM -0400 8/23/00, aaron wrote:
>  > Smalltalk started out as a single-implementation language; there were
>>  ports, but there were ports of the Xerox image.
>>  [more stuff about the technical difficulties in doing a CPAN
>workalike]
>
>I was thinking about only doing it for Squeak.  Writing a unifying
>framework
>for all/most/many Smalltalk dialects would definately be a huge project.
>Even different versions of Squeak aren't necesarily automatically
>compatible, and I realize that, but it would be nice to have a central
>repository for cool Squeak stuff that could be accessible through a
>ChangeSet browser, or just a line of code (Span getPackage: 'BlueLook'
>for: 'Squeak-2.8').

Another Squeaker recently proposed the notion of taking source codes 
off-image, and providing access by some other means, perhaps cvs, yet 
accessible from within Squeak itself.  This notion suggested to me 
the idea of promoting a "ports tree" akin to that in BSD-derivative 
distributions, where a tree of categories is presented, such as 
"network," "graphics," and the like, with a list of ports and 
descriptions contained therein.  When you want to obtain a port and 
load it into your image, the "tree" would automatically load all 
prerequisite ports, and fileIn and do all other things necessary to 
implement the "port."

A facility would also exist to "clean up" the image afterwards so far 
as possible, if the port were no longer required.

It isn't necessarily a horribly monumental idea if you distribute the 
effort, first by building the "ports tree" edifice and toolit, and 
then facilitate the building and submission of ports and similar 
tools by others.

In time, the tools can leverage effectively one on the other, making 
a relatively small image object capable of offering ready and easy 
access to an entire world of Smalltalk applications -- this brings 
more porters into the fray, and the network effect takes over.
-- 
Andrew C. Greenberg		acg at netwolves.com
V.P. Eng., R&D, 		813.885.2779 (office)
NetWolves Corporation		813.885.2380 (facsimile)
www.netwolves.com

Please use werdna at mucow.com instead of werdna at gate.net