I wish the new group success with their efforts.

Recently I have been unable for a variety of reasons to spend as much time on 
Squeak as it deserves.

It would be hard for me to argue that the prior structure with the Guides, 
etc. was working well. Over the last two and a half years, a number of people 
have asked me about what the central vision was for Squeak. I found it a 
difficult question to answer. Sure, we had short-term goals and work to be 
done (much of which is still not done). But that doesn't count as a vision 
for the future.

As someone who been both a member of the Guides as well as a member of Alan's 
group, I can say that having a group of people who are enthusiastic and 
energetic take over will probably be a positive change.

Though perhaps the same changes could have been made within the prior 
structure (after perhaps changing the membership of the Guides a bit), it's 
possible that structural changes will be helpful.

I realize that there will be disagreement about direction, vision, and 
especially about technical choices. It's easy to get our egos tied up with 
our creations, and to feel hurt when our superior technical solutions are 
rejected in favor of other ones.

Personally, I hope to continue to contribute to the Squeak project in years to 
come, despite not currently being a part of its leadership. I also hope that 
the rest of the Squeak world will give the "mysterious island" group a chance 
to revitalize Squeak's direction.

==

As an aside, is "mysterious island" a reference to the August '81 BYTE cover 
painting by Robert Tinney, which shows the Smalltalk balloon taking off from 
the Land of Smalltalk? If so, that's an interesting choice.

In Adele Goldberg's introductory article in that issue of BYTE, she explains 
how the cover was itself a comment on an earlier BYTE cover by Robert Tinney 
(the August '78 issue, the Pascal issue).

In the "About the Cover" section of that issue, Carl Helmers had described the 
allegory:

"Traveling upward (in the picture) through heavy seas we come to the pinnacle, 
a snow white island rising like an ivory tower out of the surrounding shark 
infested waters. Here we find the fantastic kingdom of Smalltalk, where great 
and magical things happen. But alas ... the craggy aloofness of the kingdom 
of Smalltalk keeps it out of the mainstream of things."

Adele continued:

"It is rare when one can indulge in one's fantasies to respond to so pointed a 
remark as that provided by the then editor of BYTE. This month's cover design 
presents just such an opportunity. It depicts the clouds clearing from around 
the kingdom of Smalltalk, and, with banners streaming, the Smalltalk system 
is taking flight into the mainstream of the computer programming community."

Of course, she was referring to the recent public availability of the 
Smalltalk-80 system and the influential articles and papers which described 
it.


In that spirit, I hope that these recent changes will continue to disperse the 
clouds and to make the "mysterious island" better connected with the world 
outside.

Good luck,
-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com/squeak
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