[squeak-dev] Call For *Your* Opinion

Philipp Tessenow philipp.tessenow at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de
Mon Apr 19 13:08:50 UTC 2010


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Am 19.04.2010 12:49, schrieb Ian Trudel:
> Dear Squeakizen,
> 
> I would like to call for your opinion(s) in regard to contributions. I
> am a firm believer in surveying the community in order to improve our
> sense of direction, our culture, and bonding as a community.
> 
> 1. What are your biggest hurdles preventing you from contributing to Squeak?
> 

 - personal reasons: I need more time to get my ideas into the keyboard :)
 - Squeak is a huge system. I have the feeling to dive deeper into
Squeak before I should start to commit. That's why I haven't contributed
to Squeak trunk but to different Squeak related projects like phidgetLab.

> 2. What would it take for you to contribute more?
> 

Maybe we need an inbox for every package/part of the system (monticello,
morphic, ..).
To make this fun (and not overhead) we might need better packet/project
managing (project = a set of source code packages, dedicated bug
tracker, inbox-style contributions possible, ..)
This may lead to better modularisation and therefore easier modification
of parts of squeak.

Well.. this needs some more thought though.

> 3. What are your expectations in regard to contributions?
> 

 - get my code discussed; get feedback and learn from the discussion
 - I can sleep well, because I've done something which goes live in squeak

> 4. What are the reasons behind the low level of contributions from
> other community members, according to you?
> 

I don't feel confident on answering this, but I'll try:
Maybe its kind of a cost-benefit-ratio where the costs are too high. You
contribute to Squeak, because you want your App to run on it. To run
your App you need several things: development tools, interaction with
the non-squeak world (out-of-the-box FFI (callbacks)), speed, flexible
workflow support (project management I mentioned above), a common api
with other smalltalks, documentation, ...


> 5. What would you improve in order to increase the number of
> contributions and the number of contributors?
> 

Enhance the 'things you need to get your app work' I mentioned above. I
remeber implementing phidgetLab - especially the eToys integration and
the c-library/FFI part - was not always as straight forward as I thought
it should be.

> 6. How would you rate your sense of social identification to the
> Squeak community, on a scale from 1 to 10. (1 is the lowest, 10 the
> highest)
> 

6

> 7. What is your rating based on?
> 

 - I'm not active on squeak-dev
 + I implemented phidgetLab (and some other minor things), went to ESUG
last summer, have a lot of discussion here at university about
smalltalk/squeak, offer some workshops/presentations about eToys/Squeak

> 8. Anything else?
> 

I officially refer to [smalltalk/squeak] as my favourite programming
[language/environment] :)
> 
> Best regards,
> Ian.
> 
> Post scriptum:
> 
> For the record, Squeak Oversight Board should conduct such surveys in
> the future. I trust the board to understand the community or otherwise
> take actions in order to do so. However, I'd like your help to prove
> the board that this is the right way to go and to be heard. So,
> please, everybody, contribute with your opinion (even if you are a
> timid person).
> 
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