A roadmap for 3.9 (Plus, [BUG][FIX] Wonderland in Squeak 3.7)

SmallSqueak smallsqueak at rogers.com
Sat Dec 11 09:01:01 UTC 2004


> I'll raise a small note of concern.  Having a strong Squeak for 
> powerful engineering and research is good, but only if we don't lose 
> the features that make Squeak so exciting and on the path to a 
> Dynabook.
> 

[SNIP]

> 
> A strong software engineering infrastructure is great, 

    Agreed,

> but not if it comes at a cost to the media and playful aspects of Squeak.
> 

     _even_if_  "it comes at a cost to the media and playful aspects" of
    _current_ Squeak if these aspects were "architected" based on 
    "kitchen sink" engineering (IMHO, of course ;-)

    BTW, with all due respect, with some self respect,  maybe 
    Squeakers should not boast so loudly about Squeak's
    multimedia aspects. ( it's 2004 now not 1980 ;-)

    Considering that Squeak started its life at Apple, the power house
    of desktop publishing and computer music (long before they were
    available for Windows ?) where are Ventura Publisher, FruityLoops,
    BIAB (Band In A Box) hidden in the kitchen sink ? 
    
    Maybe that's too much to ask. I'll be happy with CSounds, Sfront
    Psycle, Fmod plugins instead (and Book morph, of course ;-)

    Considering that a substantial funding for Squeak came from Disney,
    where is the hidden aspect of animation in Squeak ? 

    No, I don't mean that Wonderland "stolen" from Alice ;-)

    Talking of Alice, now that Alice no longer supports (and produces)
    the old 3D world models, I am wondering if Squeak and Croquet 
    had a contingency plan for this. ;-)

    Further talking about Alice ( which was built with Jython ),  on Dec04
    2004, at LL4 
        
http://web.mit.edu/webcast/csail/mit-csail-lwl-04dec2004-morning1-80k.ram

    Jim Hugunin, the father of Jython claimed that IronPython 
    (Python on CLR, aka .NET http://ironpython.com ) was 1.8 times 
    faster than Jython 2.4 on PyStone benchmark.

    How much faster is Croquet's Wonderland compared to Squeak's ?

    Cheers,

    PhiHo.

    P.S: 
    Please don't tell me that there is no Wonderland in Croquet.
    The Croqueteers are not cutting the path to Dynabook, are they ?;-)




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