Using Monticello and SqueakSource and distributing packages
Timothy Rowledge
tim at sumeru.stanford.edu
Tue Feb 17 20:52:45 UTC 2004
On Feb 16, 2004, at 6:04 PM, Avi Bryant wrote:
> Have you heard of "minimalist documentation"? See "The Nurnberg
> Funnel: Designing Minimalist Instruction for Practical Computer Skill"
> (ISBN 0262031639). Ralph Johnson had me read it for this
> pseudo-Masters program we're doing (no, I'm not kidding).
Well there's minimalist and too-little. The Minimalist philosophy of
design for example fine with me but too often people approach it from a
shallow instant-fix pile-em-high-and-sell-it-cheap viewpoint. Result -
crap.
Right now the doc for MC is well into the 'too little' area. It would
be very helpful to have some more to read.
>
> But, hey, contributions of non-minimal docs would be great. There are
> probably 20 or so people out there that know the system well enough to
> write something up...
Then please folks, write something. I'd appreciate a guide to
installing it sensibly (like when to have separate repositories or not,
what package-cache is for etc)
using it during development
making releases for other people
rescuing screwed files (vital - it will happen)
>>
>> Now the next question has to be what format should I be using to
>> distribute the VMMaker package? And of course, how do I make it? I've
>> been using a .sar because it allows a preamble/postscript to add
>> temporary methods and cleanup after install. It appears I can't
>> simply install a .mcz file in the latest 5707 image, so I'm guessing
>> that isn't the answer.
>
> SM2 is going into the update stream, which includes a simple bootstrap
> installer for MC packages. So when 3.7 is released you will indeed be
> able to load a .mcz into a stock image.
But would that be a sensible thing to do. If, as I get the impression,
an mcz file is a full history of development then it would probably be
a daft thing to distribute generally. No? Surely pulling out a
current-version .sar is more generally useful?
>
> Temporary methods is an interesting use case. That's not something
> you can do with a .mcz. What do you need it for?
Good question. One of the methods in VMMaker is #touch which is sent
as part of the noteCompilationOf:isMeta: override in InterpreterPlugin.
Because this got filed out in advance of the implementation of #touch,
I used a sar preamble to add a dummy #touch to Object, then removed it
in the postscript. You may be able to suggest an alternative to this. I
imagine filein ordering must have been an issue somewhere in your MC
experience.
tim
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