"J J" <azreal1977 at hotmail.com> writes:
> >The main difference between Universes and SqueakMap, as I understand
> >it, is that someone can group known-to-work packages in a universe
> >made for a given Squeak version. If there is a problem with a package,
> >I can still upgrade it to a newer version or remove it from the
> >universe.
> 
> My understanding was that the biggest difference was that Universes
> keeps track of package dependencies (and resolves them) without the
> builder of the package having to resort to some kind of scripting.


You are both right.  The reason that package-universes dependencies
are so simple is that the list of available packages is limited.  So I
think of the second issue as more fundamental than the first: a
package universe includes a *limited* set of packages.  Lots of things
become possible due to this simple first step.

The precise limits depend on the specific universe.  For the existing
stable releases (3.7 and 3.9), all packages must load.  For 3.9, all
packages must *simultaneously* load, i.e. they must not obviously
trounce each other.  For the development universe, we are all playing
it by ear, and since Damien is doing most of the actual work, his
ideas are the most influential.

Everyone is welcome to help out, though:

  http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/3785


Also, the precise rules for the public universes should be an issue
for the community.  Feedback is very welcome if you think things
should be done differently.  The 3.10 mailing list is a good place to
discuss these issues right now, since the current release team has
made packages a priority.

  http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/v3dot10


Lex