I didn’t mean to touch a nerve - and this was why I wrote “minor” points - but 
you did ask for feedback…

Point noted on giving user feedback - I’d actually like to fix things, but 
currently its just too hard to submit fixes other than pull requests for 
documentation that is sitting in git hub (and I have submitted those). I know 
you are working on a simpler way to contribute (and getting the GitHub process 
smoothed out is in progress so its not fair to comment on that yet as its early 
days - and much appreciated.

The Alt-Tab issue in the tracker since 2015 - but I will try and report others 
and possibly Calypso might have some better keyboard navigation tricks that 
help.

For website documentation - I’ll take it back, as I went back again just now 
and everything I could think of was there (a lot in the news section which I 
hadn’t noticed). I do think the download page is a bit confusing but I know 
there is work being done on that.

Tim


> On 6 Jul 2017, at 19:11, Stephane Ducasse <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> Only 2 minor items stick out as missing:
>> 
>> 1) Continuing to improve keyboard shortcut support (its a lot better, but
>> not quite completed - I really miss some shortcuts, particularly the ability
>> to meta-tab between windows - ALT-Tab only works in some windows, and widen
>> selection in the editor - e.g. CMD-W in IntelliJ to increasing select a
>> word, a statement, a function etc)
> 
> There are three issues there:
> - moving from the vm the keyboard generation (this will be done via
> OSWindow and the VM can focus its main job: execution).
> - then there is the way we declare/manage shortcuts: this is an
> ongoing efforts where everybody can join. We should remove the
> hardcoded shortcut and turn them into KeyBindings
> - Most of the tools will be throw away when bloc will be integrated.
> Now it does not mean that we should not do it.
> 
> Now an important point: as a user you should report but you can also
> contribute.
> This is super difficult for me to fix something that I have no clue
> how to reproduce/never encounter.
> You see the mental model of a real open-source movement is to share
> but also to produce together and the point is
> what is the reward model: why should I spend time on pain I do not
> feel. Of course we are already doing a lot
> of actions that is not focus on our immediate needs and we should
> improve the situation but I wanted to share
> with you this perspective.
> 
> 
>> 
>> 2) Keeping the website documentation more up to date (again the pharo.org
>> website is very slick, and a great showcase, however often there are late
>> breaking changes which new users won’t know about unless they trace through
>> the news groups or subscribe to some blogs). If we could also focus on
>> keeping it simple but up to date - that might help.
> 
> Where is it not up to date?
> We are always reacting to any broken piece there.
> You see producing Pharo by Example 5 was A LOT of work and I thank
> again Nicolai Hesse for all his huge efforts.
> 
> 
>> I also have 1 small query - the references to the text editor, is this
>> making the editor that was demo’d at PharoDays 2107 integrated? As that one
>> was very cool?
> 
> Yes calypso will replace our old friend Nautilus and we will certainly
> need to put a lot of love into calypso to get
> it to the right level. Now the basis is sound.
> About the node we will revisit smart suggestions and indeed sometimes
> there are problems to catch the correct AST nodes.
> 
>> I don’t know how extensible it is (I’m hoping so - and that
>> it might help making it easier to improve code editing tools such that
>> refactorings can more intelligently understand where your cursor is with
>> regards to the AST node underneath it, or we can add more intellisense
>> options that match some of the things we see in IntelliJ).
>> 
>> Tim
>> 
>> On 6 Jul 2017, at 13:00, Pavel Krivanek <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> TxText removal is already done too.
>> 
>> -- Pavel
>> 
>> 2017-07-06 10:55 GMT+02:00 Stephane Ducasse <[email protected]>:
>>> 
>>> We would like to share this list with you and get your feedback and
>>> inputs.
>>> It will be presented and discussed again at ESUG.
>>> 
>>> Stef on the behalf of the engineering team of the Pharo consortium.
>>> 
>>> # Pharo 7 (and 8) potential roadmap
>>> 
>>> This document contains a list of actions that should be done during
>>> Pharo 7 and 8.
>>> It is not a definitive list. It is the result of a discussion within
>>> the engineer team and RModers.
>>> It first lists actions that should be performed at the image level
>>> then lists the actions for the VM.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ## Image
>>> As a general principle, we will try to remove something when we add a
>>> new features or version of a component.
>>> 
>>> ### New tools
>>> - Iceberg: Iceberg is the new tool suite to handle new VCS in Pharo.
>>> For the moment it supports Git. This tool will become central to the
>>> development of projects in Pharo. The key and first enhancements will
>>> be:
>>>  - cherry picking
>>>  - multiple directories support, subtrees
>>>  - better new development process support
>>> 
>>> - Calypso: Calypso is a new tool suite for editing and navigating
>>> code. It is modular and can easily be extended.
>>>  - integration, set as the default browser
>>> 
>>> - Hermes (binary loader): Hermes is a code loader that does not
>>> require the compiler to be loaded. It will be used to speed up the
>>> bootstrap.
>>> 
>>> - Beacon: Beacon is an announcement-based logger. It should be
>>> introduced but in addition the left over of previous logging should be
>>> cleaned and removed for example many of the transcript show: should be
>>> removed.
>>> 
>>> - Inspector refreshing: the inspector should refresh its values by
>>> default.
>>> 
>>> - Cargo: Cargo is a new package manager. It supports the expression of
>>> dependencies between packages. We are currently validating that it can
>>> support conditional loading (platform) and building new tooling to
>>> express and validate data.
>>> 
>>> - Check dependencies when committing. Pharo comes with a dependency
>>> analyser tools. Such tools should be used before commiting to warn the
>>> user when a new dependency is introduced in a package.
>>> 
>>> ### Cleaning bloat
>>> - Removing of Nautilus: Once Calypso will be integrated and exhibit
>>> similar fetaures than Nautilus. Nautilus should be removed.
>>> - Remove old text editor: there is only one or two widgets still using
>>> the old text editor and the rubric text editor.
>>> - Remove TxText: TxText was an attempt to get a new generation text
>>> editor. Now it has been rewritten with a new design in Bloc so we
>>> should remove it since Bloc editor is better and actively maintained.
>>> - Remove Komitter: Iceberg already supports cherrypicking on commit
>>> therefore Komitter can be safely removed from Pharo.
>>> - Remove system categorizer: The old system categorizer is not used
>>> anymore and should be remove.
>>> 
>>> - Old compiler removal: The old compiler should now get unloaded from
>>> Pharo.
>>>  - The old compiler should be moved to an external package and make
>>> sure that it can be reloaded.
>>>  - In addition the encoders should be separated. (@@ more here@@)
>>> 
>>> - Old inspector cleanup: we should remove the eyeInspector framework
>>> but we should introduce a minimal fallback inspector. This inspector
>>> should work without Spec or any frameworks.
>>> 
>>> - Clean behavior protocol. The number of methods in the core Behavior,
>>> ClassDescription and Class requires some analysis and cleaning.
>>> 
>>> - Kernel modularization: the effort on modularising the packages
>>> should be continued.
>>> 
>>> ### Language infrastructure
>>> The following points are more related to the infrastructure of
>>> manipulating and loading class definitions. There are the basis for
>>> the future module system and cleaning some often hidden parts of the
>>> system.
>>> 
>>> - New class definition: The class definition is not scaling anymore
>>> due to the large number of options (traits, slot, tage, package,
>>> immediate, ephemeron). A fluid-based message API should be designed.
>>> 
>>> - Support for Undefined classes: When loading old code or code whose
>>> superclass has not yet being loaded, the system has inconsistent
>>> behavior. Depending on the tools, it may not load the code, raise a
>>> warning or decide that the superclass is Object without any other
>>> notice and losing the name of the original superclass. We are working
>>> on a new mechanism to support a unique way to handle such case. To be
>>> presented at IWST/ESUG
>>> 
>>> - Class definition parser: Class definition is parser in different
>>> place of the system and in addition the output is the direct creation
>>> of a class object instead of an object representing the class
>>> definition that can be further manipulated. We are working on class
>>> definition parser. It produces a separate AST. It will help the
>>> building of tools.
>>> 
>>> - Better update infrastructure. Pablo Tesone has been working on a
>>> better update mechanism, better modular class builder.
>>> 
>>> - Ring2: Ring is a metamodel to manipulate code that is not actively
>>> running in the current system. It is useful to perform analysis (such
>>> as browsing, navigating off-line or remote definitions) before
>>> actually loading the code. Ring got redesigned by Pavel Krivanek to
>>> support the bootstrap of Pharo 60. The results is Ring2.
>>> 
>>> - Opal is the Pharo Compiler. It should be enhanced to support handle
>>> better the warning and a general enhancement pass is needed.
>>> 
>>> ### System enhancements
>>> 
>>> - Commandline enhancements. RMOD is currently improving the
>>> command-line infrastructure and making sure that the system can work
>>> in read-only mode.
>>> 
>>> - Cleaning streams: the idea is to make sure that the system does not
>>> use the old streams. The idea is to start using the fileStreams and
>>> make sure that the Stream package can be substituated in the future by
>>> other streams with the same API. Therefore hardcoded class names
>>> should be substituted with factory (readSream writeStream). From that
>>> perspective we do not think that it is wise to introduce Xtreams. We
>>> should analyse the API of the current implementation.
>>> 
>>> - New theme from the beginning. It is really important that each
>>> version of Pharo is identified open the default opening. Pharo should
>>> come up with two default themes: one light and one dark.
>>> 
>>> - Better themes/palettes support
>>> - Better and nicer Tabs. Tabs design should be revisited.
>>> 
>>> - OSWindow world rendering: the effort to remove the logic of the
>>> windowing from the VM should be continued. OSWindow should be used
>>> instead.
>>> 
>>> - Freetype: The current freetype plugin is the source of many bugs and
>>> problem. Thibault Raffaillac used FFI to do direct call to openGL
>>> (@@to verify@@).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> - Refactoring 2: Refactoring 2 is an improved version of the
>>> refactorings developed by Gustavos Santos and they should used to
>>> replace the existing one.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ## VM
>>> 
>>> - 64-bits by default: Mac and Linux 64 bits VMs have been working for
>>> over a year and since June 2017 a Windows 64 bits VM has been working.
>>> The plan is to stabilize each part of Pharo that is not working in 64
>>> bits as well as in 32 bits and make the 64 bits Pharo images and VM
>>> the default download for Pharo.
>>> 
>>> - Headless VM: Ronie Salgado has built a headless VM on his VM branch,
>>> we need to merge and check everything works fine. With the headless
>>> VM, Pharo can be run in true headless mode (not with a hidden window)
>>> and it is required for future VM features (embeddable VM, ...).
>>> 
>>> - Embeddable VM: The VM should be able to be embedded in external
>>> applications, the application accessing objects through well-defined
>>> APIs.
>>> 
>>> - Idle VM: The goal is to avoid the active waiting loop consuming
>>> several per cent of cpu time when the Pharo image is not doing
>>> anything.
>>> 
>>> - Android VM: integration of the Android VM build and tests in the
>>> integration setup.
>>> 
>>> - Threaded FFI: all FFI calls should be non-blocking (reviving
>>> prototype of Eliot)
>>> 
>>> - ZeroConf for ARM: The ARM VM should be available from the zeroConf
>>> servers
>>> 
>>> - Better support for large heaps (GC tuning API, incremental GC).
>>> Pharo 64 bit is now able to manage large heap. However better
>>> performance can be proposed by offering better settings for the
>>> different GC zone.
>>> 
>>> - Integrate various fixes to support better high resolution display.
>>> In Retina mac display Pharo looks blurry. The fix to support Retina
>>> should be integrated in the VM.
>>> 
>>> ### Sista-related
>>> Sista is an optimizing JIT for Pharo. It is the result of multiple
>>> years of developement by Clement Bera and Eliot Miranda. An optimizing
>>> JIT is manipulating code (folding constant, rewriting it) before
>>> compiling it to assembly code.
>>> 
>>> - New Block Closure implementation by default: Allows one to implement
>>> in the Opal compiler the copying and clean blocks optimisations,
>>> reduce massively the complexity of some parts of the JIT (debugging
>>> API to map machine code pc to bytecode pc for example) and is required
>>> for the Sista support. Some work remains in debugging/IDE support.
>>> 
>>> - New Bytecode set in production: Eases bytecode decoding (simplifying
>>> the code base of the bytecode to source code decompiler, the debugger,
>>> the JIT, etc.), lifts compiled code limitations (size of jumps, etc.)
>>> and is required for the Sista support. Some work remains in debugging
>>> support.
>>> 
>>> - Read-only objects: They work in Pharo 6, but the in-image support
>>> needs to be improved (fall-back code of primitives, etc.) and some
>>> polishing needs to be done (primitive error code not always correct,
>>> etc.). Used for the support of different project, including GBS.
>>> 
>>> - Literals immutability (based on read-only objects). In particular an
>>> analysis of the image usage of literal (string mutation) is needed.
>>> 
>>> - Sista preview: A first version of Sista will be integrated, yielding
>>> 1.5x performance boost on most applications, but will be optional and
>>> will require specific constraints (not toying too much with literal
>>> mutability, partial IDE support, etc.).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ### Already done
>>> 
>>> - [DONE] Remove Shoreline reporter.
>>> - [DONE] Kernel should not depend on Traits: This will speed up the
>>> bootstrap and support the modular introduction of alternate traits
>>> implementation currently designed by Pablo Tesone and tested in the
>>> new generation of Moose.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 


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