Hi--

      Great list, David! Thanks for writing that. I would love to get my 
hands on any failing tests you might have, so as to get into specifics.

      Igor writes:

 > Smalltalk, by its nature does not defines a high-level abstractions
 > which can be called 'module' or 'package'.

      I don't think doing so goes against the nature of the system, it 
seems to me that the designers just didn't get around to it (another one 
for the "historical accidents" category). In particular, I don't think 
having an object memory model and having high-level abstractions for 
modules are in conflict.

 > I'm aware of at least two of module-based solutions for Squeak:
 > - Spoon by Craig Latta
 > - Namespaces by Michael van Der Gulik , as part of his SecureSqueak
 > project
 >
 > Both systems currently in development. And almost 99% it is solo
 > development by their authors.

      That doesn't surprise me in the case of Spoon, since enabling team 
development is the goal. It has to get to a certain usable place first, 
although I do think other developers could come in sooner, if we could 
work in person until it gets to that place.

 > Why we don't see these systems already employed?

      Well, Spoon isn't ready today. I'm spending Mondays working on a 
2008-06-20 release. I'm working on the history system now (an 
object-memory-based replacement for the changes and sources files). For 
more details, please participate on the Spoon mailing list (also 
available via NNTP as [1]), or on IRC in channel #spoon on 
irc.freenode.net. I just put out a call for history system use cases on 
the mailing list.

 > I think, the main problem is more social than lack of manpower or
 > funding: There is no high pressure from squeak community (and nobody
 > having an ultimate power to force it) to abandon obsolete concepts,
 > sacrifice ST-80 compatibility (partly) and move forward with system
 > based on better design & modularity.

      Personally, as a board member I'd like to lead in that direction 
and just give someone else a turn next year if nobody follows. :)


      thanks again,

-C

[1] nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.spoon

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]