Hi guys!

(added CC to squeak-dev)

NOTE: This is an adhoc status update about Deltastreams so if you are 
not a Squeak coder it is probably not interesting to read.

Last night I registered for ESUG and I intend to spend my spare time 
there hacking on DS. Will be fun seeing you Stephane! :)

In my DS hacking I may be removing some of Matthew's stuff that I don't 
fully grok - no offense, I think you understand Matthew. We can always 
merge stuff back in later. :)

My todo looks like this:

1. Refactor creation of changes in order to more easily hook in Tirade 
storage format. I am working on this right now.

2. Hook in Tirade (file format). I am doing this in parallell with #1.

3. Simplify. I am removing some abstract classes, trying to clean out 
unused and deprecated things etc.

4. Hack up a UI similar to a dual change sorter for manipulation of 
Deltas. I intend to leverage the func that already works - like load and 
edit (without applying), apply, unapply and probably a first simple 
validation like "perfectly clean" (analysing and verifying that the 
Delta applies without any mismatch whatsoever).

This ordering is based on the fact that a good stable storage format is 
really needed. Tirade will fit very good I think and Tirade itself is 
very portable, readable, flexible and small. After having that I think a 
UI similar to a changesorter is important in order to get people 
participating.

When we have the above there are tons of other roads:

- The whole "streams" bit, how to feed/find Deltas around the globe. 
RSS? Some other scheme?

- More validation levels, this is where it gets really fun. How "smart" 
can we be? For example "clean" (instead of perfectly clean) might mean 
that the image will end up in the same state, but for example stuff that 
the Delta wants to remove was already removed.

- Normalization of Deltas. I started on this earlier, and it is kinda 
fun code to write, but while it is a good thing to have (turning a Delta 
from a "log" to more like a "Changeset" removing redundancy) it is 
probably not a showstopper not having it from the start.

regards, Göran

PS. I will try to make sure I have snapshotted everything later today 
and I can update my blog entry on how to get started hacking.