RFC - Contents of first Squeak version by Guides

danielv at netvision.net.il danielv at netvision.net.il
Thu Nov 14 20:59:31 UTC 2002


Hi everybody.

We're getting our bearings on where things stand. This includes:
 * The current 3.4a version released by SqC, 
 * The work done previously by the Harvesters, and what remains in their
queue, 
 * Generally how we want to proceed in the near term 

(remember, if you want to read our discussions, you can subscribe to the
digested squeakfoundation - they're happening in the open).

Two subjects we want feedback on -
As stated, we think our first version should be pretty short and sweet.
We'll have enough startup hiccups as it is, no need to be ambitious,
too. Also, we think the update stream should shift towards heavily
preferring fixes and refactorings, and generally cleaning up cruft,
rather than adding functionality that can posted on SM.

This doesn't completely exclude the possiblity of getting functional
additions in the image, just don't be surprised at all if they're
rejected.

Under these premises, we'd like to know what you guys think would be the
most important things to get into 3.4. 

- Links to existing patches that haven't been included yet + reasoning
why they're important and usable are good.
- New patches/suggested fixes to existing problems are also good.
- General griping about the state of the world is acceptable, but maybe
not actionable (though someone in the community might surprise you, you
never know).

Things I think should happen in 3.4, just to get things rolling (not any
formal position of the Guides...):

Applications that should be made removable and maybe removed -
 - Celeste (I'll adapt to 3.4a and post the code for review in next few
weeks)
 - PWS (I've looked at Colins code, it looks fine except for some minor
issues I'll address in an email soon)
 - IRC (trivial)
 - Scamper (volunteers? warning - requires starting to refactor and
separate out some of the HTML/URL stuff in the image - not for the faint
of heart ;-)
 - Balloon3D (was made unloadable by Henrik in 3.3a - make sure it is
now, too)

Constraints on packages that should be removed -
 - Sockets should be usable in a "quiet" mode, so they bring up
exceptions instead of UI, letting the application decide what to do on
time outs/problems.
 - Make flaps pluggable, so applications can added their own prototype
without disturbing the users existing stuff.
 - PluggableListMorphs can and should be lightning quick, even for 10k
item lists, and they should allow their items to be colored - this is
usable by many, many packages (though the last might be better handled
as an SM package).

Ok, now your turn... shoot.

Daniel



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