Stephen Pair wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:02 PM, tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org 
> <mailto:tim at rowledge.org>> wrote:
>
>     I think there is a bit of a logical problem here ins that if the
>     system *didn't* have 'all that junk' the immediate result would be
>     complaints that 'it doesn't have all that useful stuff like other
>     systems'.
>
>
> I'd prefer this logical problem be solved by moving as much junk as is 
> practically possible out of the base image(s), but make it trivial to 
> find and load them back in.  Half that battle is in the finding. 
>  Right now, I can imagine that it's difficult for many people to tell 
> the most useful stuff that's out there.  Maybe the board or some other 
> body could build a consensus top 20 downloads (for a newbie developer 
> audience at first), give them prominence in the image, and make sure 
> the load ok in the base image(s), that would be a good start.
There are now two mechanisms for doing this, Universes and 
Sake/Packages. (see Sake, and Packages on Squeaksource)

The idea of Sake/Packages is that an image includes a class which lists 
methods for loading all of the other packages, including their 
dependencies. Much the same as Universes, but it is simpler to use and 
maintain since it doesnt have any the dependence upon a server, or a UI.

Installer provides command line front end to both.
>  Eventually, maybe we could make it so that certain things can be 
> triggered to get loaded automatically (I can imagine for example that 
> turning on syntax highlighing could be made to load Shout automatically).
>
> - Stephen
best regards

Keith