[squeak-dev] Squeak Forks Popularity & Trends Estimate

Nevin Pratt nevin at bountifulbaby.com
Mon Jul 6 01:17:22 UTC 2009


There's no right or wrong answer to the following three questions.  And, 
every response is meaningful, because it helps reveal the general sense 
of direction that the community is feeling.

***********************
Question #1: Of the various Squeak forks (such as Croquet, Pharo, etc.), 
what is your feeling of their relative popularities at this point in 
time, and how does that compare with the current popularity of the base 
Squeak distribution?

Question #2: This is related to the above-- what is your feeling of the 
relative popularity *trend* of each of the forks, and how does that 
compare with your feeling of the *trend* of the future popularity of the 
base Squeak distribution?

Question #3: What is your justification for your answers to the above 
two questions?
************************

I'll begin with my own answers...

...I'm beginning to feel like the Pharo fork currently now has maybe 50% 
or more of the popularity of the base Squeak distro, and I'm beginning 
to feel like Pharo is headed to become the dominant distribution in the 
future, surpassing the original Squeak distro.  And I base that feeling 
on several observations:

1. The email traffic comparison on the "Pharo-project" email list 
compared to the email traffic on "The general-purpose Squeak developers 
list", and the observed trend in such traffic.

2. The number of developers posting on the Pharo-project email list.

3. The specific developers posting on the Pharo-project email list 
(known Squeakers who have contributed heavily to Squeak in the past).

4. The fact that Seaside development has moved to Pharo.

At one time I wondered if Croquet would become the dominant Squeak fork, 
for the simple reason that it had a business organization "officially" 
supporting it, similar to what Squeak had in the Disney days.  But now I 
think I would bet my money on Pharo.

What do you think?  And why?

Also, remember, there's certainly nothing wrong with several "dominant" 
forks existing.  But of those, one of them will still be the most 
popular overall.  And I'm curious about thoughts of which one that is, 
and which one that will become, and why you think so.

Nevin








More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list