Hi Gang, Assuming for a moment that it is even desirable to fork Squeak, I would much rather see it fork along problem domains rather than along the lines of an operating environment. IMNSHO, the world needs another round of Solaris vs HPUX vs AIX vs MaxOS X vs BSDI vs NetBSD vs FreeBsd vs GNU/Linux vs all of the other flavors of U**X like we need more holes in our heads. There is even evidence of this madness in the Smalltalk world. :-) Instead, I would rather see a Medical Squeak, a Music Squeak, a Movie Squeak, an Engineering Squeak, a Scientific Squeak, a Web Squeak, a Collaborative Squeak, etc., etc., etc. Each of these implementations would be optimized toward particular problem domains, and yet, share some common elements, depending upon the domain. [Of course, there could even be a Lawyer Squeak, that is, one that bites you in the ass when you turn it on. (Sorry about that. :-) ) ] Each of these various implementations of Squeak could remain relatively small with real performance, yet serve the needs of a particular problem domain quite well. During a recent visit to my doctor's office, the RN behind the desk was struggling with a software package designed to support a physician's office. "Having a problem?", I innocently asked. She snorted and with a look of utter disgust said, "Whoever designed this piece of crap knew nothing about how we do our jobs around here!" I nodded in sympathy, took my seat to await my appointment, and hoped that my doctor was in a better mood. I declined to identify myself as a computer engineer, because I flashed on an image of this RN taking my blood sample with a needle the size of a screwdriver. Not that she would, of course. :-) Computer engineers and computer scientists have a notorious reputation for worshipping the machines that we create in our own image. I sincerely hope that the advocates for forking Squeak, Stable Squeak, the SqF, et al, keep this firmly in mind. Remember, there are real people out there. Yes, the ones with money who may, or probably will not, buy our latest mindstorms. Cheers, Roger.....
I know I've already poured more than my share of fuel on the fire, but this message had some tidbits I couldn't resist :)
On Thursday 26 April 2001 15:56, Roger Vossler wrote:
IMNSHO, the world needs another round of Solaris vs HPUX vs
AIX vs MaxOS X vs BSDI vs NetBSD vs FreeBsd vs GNU/Linux vs all of the other flavors of U**X like we need more holes in our heads. There is even evidence of this madness in the Smalltalk world. :-)
Some of these (AIX, HPUX) are basically just NIH syndrome of various behemoth corporations, but some (MacOS X) have *significant* functionality advances over any of their competitors, and some (GNU/Linux, FBSD) carry an ideology as well as a codebase. I think we *do* need this kind of competition in the computing industry; at least until we've progressed past the witch-doctor style analysis of software quality.
Moreover, if these were all forked from some original code base (which they were not) and that original codebase lacked something as basic as shared libraries or heirarchical directories, I think you'd see a lot more than one fork ;)
Instead, I would rather see a Medical Squeak, a Music
Squeak, a Movie Squeak, an Engineering Squeak, a Scientific Squeak, a Web Squeak, a Collaborative Squeak, etc., etc., etc. Each of these implementations would be optimized toward particular problem domains, and yet, share some common elements, depending upon the domain. [Of course, there could even be a Lawyer Squeak, that is, one that bites you in the ass when you turn it on. (Sorry about that. :-) ) ] Each of these various implementations of Squeak could remain relatively small with real performance, yet serve the needs of a particular problem domain quite well.
Why would this be desirable? What if I'm a doctor who is also an amateur cinematographer? I can't make movies that correlate to medical information? I see the (possible) fork as good because it will add some features that will allow us to have all of these "separate" squeaks done as modules which can talk to each other without requiring expert knowledge of Squeak's internals.
During a recent visit to my doctor's office, the RN
behind the desk was struggling with a software package designed to support a physician's office. "Having a problem?", I innocently asked. She snorted and with a look of utter disgust said, "Whoever designed this piece of crap knew nothing about how we do our jobs around here!" I nodded in sympathy, took my seat to await my appointment, and hoped that my doctor was in a better mood. I declined to identify myself as a computer engineer, because I flashed on an image of this RN taking my blood sample with a needle the size of a screwdriver. Not that she would, of course. :-)
Although I've never worked in the medical industry, I've worked on custom vertical-market software. This stereotypical cry of frustration, often idealized into the anguished cry of the virtuous user against their technocratic opressors, is equally often just a declaration of resistance to change.
"This software engineer knew nothing about how we do our jobs!" can really mean "I knew how to do this job with yellow sticky notes, and the interface doesn't remind me of the yellow sticky notes I know!" Using technology to improve one's job performance or enjoyment does not mean familiarity, it doesn't mean that the software engineer ought to know exactly how the job used to be done; in fact, if the net result of buying an expensive piece of software is that the job gets done in exactly the same way it was done before, but with a $1000 computer and $500 worth of software, why would ANYONE buy business software? Of course, software in those situations is a tool, and using a tool requires learning. In my experience, a surprising number of people are not interested in or actively resistant to learning.
If the fellow who designed that "piece of crap" didn't know anything about how they do their jobs, why did they buy the software? I imagine it's not free. If someone ELSE bought the software (not the RN you spoke to), perhaps there are different ideas about how an RN does, or should do, their job.
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