Hi folks!

As the author of SqueakMap, long time Squeaker (and nowadays both 
Squeaker and Pharooner) and also involved in some other related projects 
(SmalltalkHub and more) my view might be of some interest.

First of all, Angel compares with the rest of the world - but we have 
both historic and technical differences at play. Some things worth noting:

- SqueakMap was indeed started out as a generic package *catalog*. It is 
not a SCM tool. It was format agnostic from the very beginning.

- Monticello and SqueakSource came from Avi. Superb tools but when 
Squeaksource came I quickly warned the community that it would deminish 
SqueakMap because it overlapped and "took over" several "catalog" 
aspects. I was right unfortunately, but at the same time SS was great 
and has served us very well in its own right.

- Noone has really taken SM and moved it forward. I also don't have that 
amount of free time anymore.

- SqueakMap is dead. Face it. :) It is not the future IMHO.

- Monticello and Metacello are the de facto standard these days for SCM 
and package loading. Metacello took the whole 
dependencies/tagging/releases issue and simply rode on MC to solve it. I 
have felt it looks overly complex but it's mostly some line noise - it 
is not that complicated.

- This also means that for a very, very long time package management and 
source code management will be forever "intertwined" in the Smalltalk 
world. Personally I say - fine! Again, let's just embrace it and go.

- The advantage is that Metacello "configurations" is "just code" and 
can offer functionality totally independent of the hosting platform for 
MC. So it doesn't matter if you load a Metacello configuration from a 
website, from SS or SS3 or Smalltalkhub - it all works the same!

- Monticello AND Metacello are meant to work in Squeak too. I haven't 
tried, but I presume Metacello works or is very close to working?

- Pharo is betting hard on Smalltalkhub. It is a really nice system AND 
there is also an image side client tool brewing for it! This means the 
equivalence of the SqueakMap Package Loader will be easy to build in 
Squeak for Smalltalkhub.


So my advice would be:

1. Keep SqueakMap on oxygen for a little while longer while we get ready 
to ditch it. Really.

2. Bet hard on Monticello (we already do, right?) and Metacello for 
Squeak. Make sure they work. Embrace Metacello even if it does look a 
bit complex to begin with. There are lots of articles, tutorials and 
tons of examples to just copy from. I have written two configurations 
these last two days and "the shit works". Good work Dale! :)

3. Get involved in Smalltalkhub and help out making it work fine for 
Squeak, note the name - *Smalltalk* hub. It's not Pharohub! Don't set up 
your own unless for some odd reason Pharo makes it uninhabitable for 
Squeak and turns it into "Pharohub".

Note that Smalltalkhub is "just" a new SS, but much more solid 
architecture, really snazzy modern web UI, offering githubish features 
and bloody hell, I mean, it can show diffs right there in the browser!

Smalltalkhub also has a really cool architecture so the coding fun is 
rated A++, Nicolas is busy as a bee making it better, better. I think it 
should be seen as a unifying playground and Metacello as the "glue" that 
makes it possible to have projects tailored for both Squeak and Pharo. 
It has many functions for EXACTLY that.

Either way, I am putting my efforts right there. IMHO the Squeak 
community should do so too. If the Squeak community can ride a bit on 
the momentum in Pharo - there is really no reason not to.

regards, Göran