Thank you, I will; community support will be important -- developers (and their managers!) are very conscious of the "critical mass" issue. They all want to know that if they make an investment in learning and using a new language, tools, development paradigm, etc. that there's a company/support structure/resources behind it that will exist for a long time to come. No one wants to "get stuck" with an orphan product or technology -- even if it is attractive at first. (The culture here can be a bit risk-averse in places.)
We also welcome open-source projects, and use them freely. Adopting Pharo would not be substantially different than our current widespread use of Linux, C/C++, Python, Lua, Tcl, SVN, Git, etc. There's definitely a place for it here. But very few know about it! I've attended a Tech Talk (and plan to join tomorrow's talk). And I'm aware of the consortium; I joined the Pharo Association myself as an individual. There's no reason why we wouldn't/couldn't do so as an academic organization, at some point (assuming my plans succeed). We have an unusual situation: JPL may be part of NASA (they own the buildings, the equipment, the property, fund the projects, etc.), but we are not civil servants -- we don't work for the federal government as do other NASA center staff. We're actually staff members of Caltech, under privileged long-term contract. So I can either be "a government employee" (via contract) or "an academic staff member", depending (usually on what kind of discount some business may be offering. ;^) So it may be easier as Caltech to have an academic association. Something also for the future... -t -- Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Developers-f1294837.html
