[Webteam] 2nd Draft of About section

[Brad Fuller]

Looks great Larry! I have just a few nitpicks ( of course.)


Larry Trutter wrote:

> 
> 2nd Draft:
> 
> About
> Squeak is highly portable open-source Smalltalk with powerful multimedia

Squeak is a highly portable, open-source

> facilities. Squeak is the vehicle of a wide range of projects, ranging
> from educational platforms to commercial web application development.

Maybe:
Squeak is the vehicle for a wide range of projects from educational
platforms to commercial web application development.

> 
> Other noteworthy aspects of Squeak include:

Remove "Other"

> 
> ·    real-time sound and music synthesis written entirely in Smalltalk
> ·    extensions of BitBlt to handle color of any depth and anti-aliased
> image rotation and scaling

It'd be nice to get WarpBlt in here too

> ·    network access support that allows simple construction of servers
> and other useful facilities
> ·    bit-identical execution on many platforms (Windows, Mac, Unix, and
> others)
> ·    a compact object format that typically requires only a single word
> of overhead per object
> ·    a simple yet efficient incremental garbage collector for 32-bit
> direct pointers with efficient bulk-mutation of objects

Maybe something general sounding about the comprehensive development
environment, too?

> Each release includes platform-independent support for color, sound, and
> network access, with complete source code. 

How about:
Every release includes platform-independent support for color, sound,
network access, and a full complement of developer tools with complete
source code.


> Originally developed on the
> Macintosh, members of its user community have since ported it to

members of the Squeak community have since ported it to numerous other
platforms including Windows NT, XP, Windows CE

> numerous other platforms including Windows NT, XP Windows CE (it runs on
> the Cassiopeia and the HP320LX), all common flavors of UNIX, Acorn
> RiscOS, and a bare chip (the Mitsubishi M32R/D).
> 
> What is Squeak?
> Squeak is based on Smalltalk which was created more than 35 years ago.
> Smalltalk defined the term object orientation and is the first language
> in which everything is built from objects. Smalltalk is deeply inspired
> by ideas from Simula, Sketchpad and Lisp.
> 
> Even today, Smalltalk sets the bar for object oriented dynamically
> strongly typed interactive languages and environments. Unlike the
> standard static, file-based approach of other languages such as Ruby or
> Python, Squeak offers a true uniform fully reflective environment - real
> live objects. In this environment, when anyone can make a change to an
> object, its behavior changes immediately without having to restart the
> system. You can even modify or create objects while the application is
> running.

In this environment, when a change is made to an object, its behavior
changes immediately without having to restart the system. You can even
modify or create objects while the application is running.

> 
> Squeak includes class libraries and virtual machine plugins for very
> advanced multimedia including anti-aliased 2D and accelerated 3D

advanced multimedia feature including anti-aliased 2D, accelerated 3D

> graphics, real-time sound and music synthesis, MPEG2 video and much
> more. In addition, Squeak has one of the most advanced fully reflective
> development environments ever created with over 600 addon packages
> available for single click download and installation.
> 
> Squeak runs bit-identical images across its entire portability base,
> greatly facilitating collaboration in diverse environments. Any image
> file will run on any interpreter even if it was saved on completely
> different hardware, with a completely different OS (or no OS at all!).
> 
> What is Cool about Squeak
> "The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution
> hasn't started yet. Don't be misled by the enormous flow of money into
> bad defacto standards for unsophisticated buyers using poor adaptations
> of incomplete ideas."
> - Alan Kay
> 
> Squeak stands alone as a practical computing environment in which a
> developer, researcher, professor, or motivated student can examine
> source code for every part of the system, including graphics primitives
> and the virtual machine itself. One can make changes immediately and
> without needing to see or deal with any language other than Smalltalk.
> 
> Our diverse and very active community includes teachers, students,
> business application developers, researchers, music performers,
> interactive media artists, web developers and many others. Those
> individuals use Squeak for a wide variety of computing tasks, ranging
> from child education to innovative research in computer science, or
> creation of advanced dynamic web sites using the highly acclaimed
> continuation based Seaside framework.
> 
> A Brief History of Squeak
> Squeak began, very simply, with the needs of a research group at Apple.
> The goal was to build a system using a language as expressive and
> immediate as Smalltalk to pursue various application goals such as
> prototypical educational software, user interface experiments and
> another run at the Dynabook concept. The core team behind Squeak
> includes Dan Ingalls, Alan Kay, Ted Kaehler, and Scott Wallace. All of
> this has attracted many of the best and most experienced Smalltalk
> programmers and implementers in the world.
> 
> Philosophy
> The fundamental philosophy of Squeak is to write everything in
> Smalltalk. All of the source code in Squeak, including the virtual
> machine interpreter, is available to see, understand, modify, and extend
> for whatever purpose. It is a genuine, complete, compact, efficient and
> robust Smalltalk environment. Squeak’s virtual machine is written
> entirely in Smalltalk, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change. To
> achieve practical performance, a translator produces an equivalent C
> program whose performance is comparable to commercial Smalltalks.

I'd like to see more about the dynabook philosophy here.

I'd take the two paragraphs below and move them above, maybe under
"About" since they convey more of what squeak is used for and not it's
fundamental philosophy.

> Squeak is used as a computing tool for research on how computers can be
> used to enhance and amplify learning. Specifically, work in using
> computers to find new ways to reach children with powerful ideas of math
> and science.
> 
> Squeak provides a computer environment, such as Etoys, that help people
> learn ideas by building and playing around with them. Many meaningful
> and motivating projects helps them develop as logical thinkers, and
> understand how some technologies, that they encounter in their everyday
> lives, work. The Etoys tutorial illustrates an example of a learning
> environment where students increase their knowledge and wisdom by
> experimentation and experience rather than by the traditional, passive
> reception of lectures and limited feedback loops.
> 
> 
> -Larry Trutter
> 
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-- 
brad fuller
www.bradfuller.com