Hi All,

    n talking with Tony Garnock-Jones about development process I reread https://squeak.org/development_process/.  What’s missing here is a paragraph or two that explains the update scheme, both that one can update and how update maps work. It needs to contain the following four things:

1. Squeak images can be updated automatically to the tip of trunk, or the tip of a release, using the Monticello update command launched from the menu bar.  Choosing between trunk or a release is fine by setting the update URL preference.

2. sometimes changes to the system cross packages and introduce load order dependencies such that a particular version of a package must be loaded before a particular version of another package in order for the system to correctly evolve.  This problem does not exist in statically compiles systems where executables are built from source.  It applies to live systems that compile themselves dynamically.

3. The system makes sure that packages load the required versions in the required order to successfully bootstrap a change using update maps.  An update map is simply a list of specific versions of all the packages in the system, version M of package 1, version N of package 2, to version X of package N.  The update process ensures that any updates younger than the current tip and older than the current state of the image are “applied”, that the system has at least these versions loaded before loading new versions, hence ensuring that the system progresses through each baseline before loading further packages

4. When a committer needs to add an update map to ensure package load order is corrected they use the Monticello Configuration tool to edit and add a new hconfiguration to the repository.

And it needs to say these things in other than the awful specificationese I used above.  I don’t have time to try and do it now, and my habit of producing specificationese rather than helpful English means I may not be the best person for the job.

So if anyone has time and talent please have at it.  AFAICT it is the only missing part in https://squeak.org/development_process/

_,,,^..^,,,_ (phone)
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