In honor of the scattered contents of this message, I have given it a
table of CONTENTS:
  Suggestion for Modules
  Navigation/Etiquette issues with team lists
  Thoughts on v4 (in P.S.)

MODULES
In reviewing the Modules page http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/5608
it looked as if the abortive experience with modules (I don't
recall their exact name) in squeak, maybe a couple of years ago,
wasn't on the list.

Perhaps I overlooked it (maybe it's "Packages in Squeak (Alex's
work)"?), but, if not, I think it would be useful to consider, even
though the attempted change didn't take.

My first thought was to send the previous 2 paragraphs to the modules
discussion list, but I ran into a number of issues:

TEAM LISTS

1) I wanted to post without subscribing, but I'm not sure if that's
possible or considered good etiquette.

2) Nothing actually gave the edress of the list (though I could
probably make a good guess from, e.g., the subscription address).
Perhaps that's indicative that you are supposed to subscribe.  If not,
it would be nice to make it clearer (along with the policy on
non-subscriber posts).

3) When I tried to review some of the items on the list, ones with
numbers > 1 next to them (I assume that means a thread of discussion),
the thread forward button didn't seem to work.  I think the problem
was that I was at the end of the thread, even though I thought I was
at the beginning.  The thread back button seems to work.

Probably the numbered issues above are relevant to all the teams.

This was my first go at the squeakland lists (and I'm more familiar
with mailman than ezlm), so you could regard these as useful insights
from a novice point of view or beginner's cluelessness!  I thought I'd
mention them in case the former interpretation had merit.

In case you can't tell, it seemed to me it would be a good thing to
let non-members post.  That way if I have a comment I can follow the
list on the web and send something along.  The alternatives are
sending it to the general list, which clutters it, or subscribing,
which adds clutter for me.

Finally, though I don't have time to contribute, I'm very glad to see
the momentum of the last month or two, and appreciate the efforts of
all of you who are contributing.

Ross Boylan


V4

Unrelated P.S. I think it would be good to get the VM level changes
that have been hanging around for years in for several reasons.
First, while some of the other stuff contemplated for v4 is still in
planning, this stuff is done--albeit in need of updating and testing,
no doubt.  Second, it's great that people are doing this VM work, and
I would hate to see them get demotivated by the very long wait (I
gather lots of people are frustrated by waits, but these sound like
particularly long ones).  Third, there's some chance that the changes
would be user-level useful in terms of greater speed (anyone still
contemplating JIT compilation?)  or semantics (block closures).