Karl,

> There is also the issue of Squeak's interface to other operating 
> systems' user interfaces:
> 
> For example, what if I were to do the same thing with the Macintosh 
> or PocketPC or whatever?  In the end, we'd have as many ways of 
> interfacing as interfaces which also seems counter the Squeak spirit.

Certainly not. If you've been long enough on this mailing list you may
remember the "Cheese" project which was an approach to integrate native
widgets on OS/2. It got abandoned but (for those who were able to try)
it was most certainly an experience to look at and try to understand how
this maps to their preferred platform.

Many other things (most noticably the OSProcess stuff) have started out
on a single platform. That isn't to say that it'll stay that way if the
interface is well enough designed.

> However, as with Frank Sergeant's suggestions, providing your 
> assistance and experience could help give Squeak a generic model for 
> interfacing with whatever  operating system it is running on.  Now 
> wouldn't that be great!

You are aware that there are already two such models are you? You can
either write a plugin that interfaces your operating system or you can
use the FFI in order to call functions from your OS or any other shared
libraries.

Cheers,
  - Andreas