On Feb 17, 2005, at 8:51, Lex Spoon wrote:

> "Lex Spoon" <lex at cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
>> This coup is illegitimate.  I hope that the Squeak community does not
>> fall for this power grab, and that they remember this incident well.
>> This power is neither legitimate nor a good idea.
>
> I apologize for the tone of this rant.  I still mistrust the 
> suggestion,
> but I deeply regret how I said it.  Everyone is just trying to help, 
> and
> these fellows in particular are just feeling frustrated that the mule
> won't seem to get moving.
>
> I'm sorry.  I look forward to reading more details of what these eager
> fellows have in mind.
>
> -Lex
>

Lex,

No need to apologize, you said what a lot of folks were also thinking 
but didn't say because we don't have the standing in the community that 
you have.

What scares me about this whole thing is not that a group of dedicated 
people decided to take the bull by the horns and attempt to get the 
development process back on track but the way they went about.  They 
may all be superior coders but their people skills suck.  And 
unfortunately for what they are proposing people skills will take 
precedent. You can always go out and find programmers to help if you 
have the skills to get them onboard.

The January 31st  issue of BuisinessWeek online
( http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_05/b3918001_mz001.htm 
) had an interesting article on what they termed 'Linux Inc.'.  It 
would make good reading for anyone interested in getting Squeak moving 
again.  It described how Linus Torvalds needed to make changes in how 
he was running the project. His coding was top notch but his people 
skills were lacking. Sound familiar?

I'd like to see Squeak stay around and move forward, not for any 
commercial reasons, I'm past that now. I was in the business a long 
time ago and got out a long time ago, now I do this because I truly 
enjoy it. And I believe it is important that Smalltalk in some form is 
available for new programmers to experience. We may never again have 
Smalltalk development like we had back in  the '80's on Wall Street but 
it is still one of the best languages going.

So to the gang of 4 (political references intended) please don't screw 
up. I'd hate to be sitting here in six months or a year trying to 
figure out which of the 23 versions I need to load or which of the 43 
mailing lists I need to subscribe to.

And Lex again thanks for voicing the concerns of a lot of us.

regards

------------------------
Frank Caggiano
frankcag at crystal-objects dot com
http://www.crystal-objects.com

The best education for the best is the best education for all.
					Robert Maynard Hutchins