[squeak-dev] squeak 4.1 download confusion for Unix, esp Debian

Ross Boylan ross at biostat.ucsf.edu
Thu Apr 22 02:57:19 UTC 2010


Going to squeak.org and following the download link for linux in the
upper right puts you in http://ftp.squeak.org/4.1/unix-linux/.  I don't
think this is very friendly, especially for a newcomer, for the
following reasons:

1. There are multiple files and it's not clear which one(s) to get or
what their different roles are.
2. Some of the files have 4.0 in their names.
3. One of the files, judging by the name, is for Darwin.  I believe that
is BSD, not Linux, based.

If in the download section when clicks on the installation link, which
in turn directs you to http://squeak.org/Documentation/Installation for
Unix and http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/3616 for Debian.

The former is only about the VM.  The latter says to use a repository on
squeak.org, but I thought that the current debs were going into mainline
debian.  (Maybe only for the VM).

I have some suggestions:

Change the "Download" section to "Get Squeak".  The linux link takes you
to a page recommending that you get if from your distribution, and then
saying "If your distribution does not have squeak packaged, or if it
does not have a current package, then you will need the following
files..."  And finally there should be links to the files.

Ideally, the page would indicate what version was currently packaged in
each distribution.

Finally, here is my best guess about the numbered confusions above:
1. One needs
http://ftp.squeak.org/4.1/unix-linux/Squeak-4.0.3.2202-linux_i386.tar.gz
for the VM and http://ftp.squeak.org/4.1/unix-linux/Squeak4.1.zip for
the image/changes.  One only needs
http://ftp.squeak.org/4.1/unix-linux/Squeak-4.0.3.2202-src.tar.gz to
build the VM from source.
Ignore the darwin file.

2. The most current Unix VM's are 4.0.  This still surprises me a bit,
since I thought closures needed VM support and they are advertised as a
4.1 feature.  Maybe the necessary VM changes were already in place at
4.0.

3. Ignore the darwin file.  Should it be cleaned out/relocated, e.g., to
OS-X?




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