how to become modular (was "Contributors Agreement signature status?")

Bill Schwab BSchwab at anest.ufl.edu
Fri Jul 6 14:33:39 UTC 2007


I have been trying to follow the 3.10 effort.  Notice I said "trying" -
I'm pretty much lost and playing catchup.  With that said, the
impression I get is that Pavel is trying to do the componentization that
(AFAICT - I'd like to to be wrong) has not materialized.  If that's the
case, more power to him.

With no offense intended to Craig, Spoon appears to be a very much
different effort, and one that is years old.  It might ultimately be
very good for Squeak, but proper packaging and some cruft removal (or
perhaps simply identification) as likely by-product strikes me as the
next logical step for the Squeak.

Just my 2 asCents.  Feel free to straighten me out as appropriate.

Bill




Avi Bryant wrote:
I'll speak plainly back, then. You asked in a recent message how to
get someone else to use Spoon. The only true answer I can give is,
offer them a short term gain. Yes, short term incremental improvement
causes the total effort to be greater, but it also mitigates adoption
risk: at each incremental stage you can assess whether or not people
are actually going to use the work you're doing or not, and modify
what you're doing accordingly. It's great to go off on a long-term
research project and come back with something beautiful, but there is
a significant risk that it will turn out not to be what people
actually want, and get no adoption. Having an incremental process in
the meantime is valuable, both as a backup in case the long-term
project fails, but also to inform the long term project about what the
community finds useful and what falls flat.

In Vancouver, where I live, there is currently a massive multi-year
project going on to extend a subway line from downtown out to the
airport. In 2010, when it's complete, it'll be great. For now, it's
a massive disruption.

I can live with the disruption. Here's what I wouldn't be able to
live with: when I'm standing on the street corner hailing a cab to
take me to the airport, one of the subway engineers comes over and
tells me off. "All you have to do is grab a shovel and help out and
we'll get you to the airport in style - *so* much better than a taxi,
and less total effort in the long run." That's nice, buddy, but I've
got a plane to catch.

Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bschwab at anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029




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