OT - Squeak and the Broader Software Community

Alejandro F. Reimondo aleReimondo at smalltalking.net
Fri Jul 7 22:40:44 UTC 2006


Hi all,

> What is more important is feel.
I agree.
Feel is dependent of content.

When we think in changes (and paths to the future,
 e.g. trying to invent it) without considering
 the peculiarities of Smalltalk, we leave the
 "important contents" to follow the other's popularity.

Smalltalk as a marginal media/support can´t be
 used to follow/replicate the "natural path" of
 popular media/dev-support/language.

IMHO, it is neccesary to identify, reflect and
 do efforts in propagate the peculiarities of smalltalk
 to let it continue been diferent to popular media.
If we do not make efforts in preserving the
 differences; the "identity" of smalltalk will be
 missing when the creators dissapear.

The "revival" and reinforcement of peculiarities
 must be in hands of young people but directed
 by master followers (directed by education
 and not by money IMO) to be sustainable
 in the medium/long term.

I think that the word "community" is not
 important and we must not force to get
 aComunity now, because there are
 more efforts to make in local and regional
 areas to produce celular groups capable
 to promote and re-create an advance in O.T.
 using Smalltalk as a starting media/point

cheers,
Ale.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nicolas cellier" <ncellier at ifrance.com>
To: <chris at funkyobjects.org>; "The general-purpose Squeak developers list"
<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 5:56 PM
Subject: Re: OT - Squeak and the Broader Software Community


>
> Once more, this thread is going to focus on the look...
> As already said many times in many threads, maybe look is good to appeal
new
> comers...
> But whether windows should be green or orange, or the button have thick
> borders, oval corner or a shadow is not the more important.
>
> What is more important is feel.
>
> I do not know how good is Squeak UI on Mac, but windows and linux squeak
feel
> are not at the level we would expect such a wonderfull tool. I will take
> several simple examples.
>
> Why does the mouse wheel does not scroll lists but instead flash? Why does
the
> pageUp and pageDown keys also flash the list instead of selecting one page
up
> or down? Is there multiple selection list working with kind of shift+click
or
> control+click?
>
> How can i switch keyboard focus from one pane to another, or change window
> stack order without using the mouse?
>
> Did you really try to copy/paste text from squeak to another application
et
> vice et versa? switching from ALT+C to CTRL+V, or the contrary is really
is
> gymnastic for user hands and brain... That is obviously why a little bit
of
> standardization does not harm.
>
> My personnal opinion is that among palo alto inventions, the mouse was not
the
> greatest. Hands are wonderfull tools with a lot of articulations. Compare
how
> many articulations are working when hitting the keyboard and how many when
> using the mouse... You will understand why many feel the mouse as a
handicap.
> And why many are still using emacs vi and mc.
>
> So, when you say "the look does not matter", or Squeak UI is great, please
> don't forget the feel. Lot of people won't find mouse-centric UI that
great.
>
> Nicolas
>
>




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