Hi,
>
> I'm really glad PharoLauncher has been promoted to the download page,
> but it seems some people want to push PharoLauncher to *be* Pharo.
> To me this seems a poor strategy.
>
> The README file in the PharoLauncher zip downloads says...
> "Pharo 1.1-2018.01.16 This distribution was built January 16, 2018."
>
> This seems strange to me and highly likely to confuse newcomers.
> Pharo 1.1 more than a few years old. How can something built in 2018 be
> named "Pharo 1.1" ?
>
> And if PharoLauncher is instead published as Pharo 7, then it seems strange
> to use it to run Pharo 5 images and later Pharo 8 images.
> Why not have the Downloads page just say "The recommended way to manage Pharo
> downloads is with PharoLauncher"
> and allow PharoLauncher to exist as a separate entity. This would be similar
> similar to those applications where you download
> an initial 500kB installer, which then grabs the other 100MB from the net to
> complete the install.
>
> Also, when maybe one day we can use Pharo as a command line shell, how will
> that relate to PharoLauncher being presented "as" Pharo.
>
>
What is clear is that people use many images anyway. And the more machines get
bigger, this will happen even more.
So any download can only be “the VM + a Template image”.
=> when you just start “Pharo” it starts the template (read only)
=> drag an image (or double click) -> opens that image.
To make that work for real we would need to have one release per version
(Pharo6, Pharo7, Pharo8) that you install…
The launcher is a similar scheme that I think could be even better, it adds:
- easy find images online
- manage your images (you do not need to use it, you can just use the
UI of your OS instead, too).
- manage VMs in addition.
- which means that it is just one download that people need to install
to be able to run all old images, too.
So I think if can be quite nice… it needs some iterations
- simplify the UI so people know what todo when they see it the first
time
- make sure it works everywhere
- Sign it so installation is easier
- We need something that the images that end up on disk do not have the
bit set that make drag-n-drop fail.
- integrate command line: There should be a menu to write scripts to
/usr/local/bin to run pharo images easily
- Longterm: we need 1-file images… a container that has the image
itself + auxiliary stuff on “disk” but that is one file.
So for me this is a bit like docker: to use docker, you install docker on the
mac. There is one way, it works.
Marcus
