***great*** story. Stef
PS: You must read "2000/12 - Kamigami no Itadaki - Le Sommet des Dieux" from jiro taniguchi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Taniguchi this is 1800 pages manga on alpinists and himalaya. I thought it would be dead boring but this is excellent. Once you french is ready you can lend it for free in the public library. On Dec 17, 2009, at 5:15 PM, Marcus Denker wrote: > >>> However they didn't want to be involved in the politics, and I cant say I >>> blame them. > > So let's see, what where our options last year? > > 1. Take over Squeak (just like Andreas did now) > 2. Just step aside and do a fork. > 3. Nicely ask to be involved with 3.11 > > 1) was not possible. In 3.9, both Stef and me where in the Board. (We should > not that we foundet it...) > But Stef left in disgust as it became clear the people there were not willing > to do *anything*. > And I did not seek re-election after the community made it clear that they > did not like our work on 3.9. > (and there was a PhD Thesis to write...) > > As for 3: the community chose you to do 3.11! And it was made clear to us > that we did everything wrong with > 3.9. And everyone seemed happy to do what Squeakers do best: Discuss while > doing nothing. > > The other thing then is etoys... we put some effort into etoys in 3.9 (merge > with squeakland.org, merge > with Diego's SmallLand which was the largest etoy installation at that > point). But no child ever used it. > There was no interaction with the people who worked (payed!!) on etoys *at > all*. > > And it was clear that an etoys in Pharo would never be used. So why keep it? > Especially as etoys is really > not easy to maintain. (I personally rate it as unmaintainable. It's a mess of > epic proportion). > It's not an asset. It's a liability. But Squeak without etoys is not Squeak. > So another name is quite > the right thing to do, no? > > Than, why do we need something like Pharo anyway? The reason is that we used > Squeak it *every* *single* *day*. > We used Squeak for teaching, we used it do do research. Phd Students used it, > Master Students used it. People that > left the university started to use it in their company. > > So, I am a Researcher, and my point of view of "Why Pharo" is this: > > Doing Research is like exploring a mountain. A high mountain, the peak is > covered in clouds, no idea where > exactly it is an just how high the peak is... yet it's there. And you *want* > to get there. > > So what would you do in this situation? There are four approaches: > > 1) Talk about The Peak, but don't do anything until someone invents a > magical peak discovery device. > > 2) Go up. As far as you can. Do not waste time with acquiring good > equipment, do not build camps. > (building a camps is not your goal! the peak is!) > > 3) Go up. But while doing it, start to note how to improve your > equipment. Seek good spots for putting > up camps and storage for food. You will not find the peak this time. > But you have learned a lot. > You know where to put a camp. You know how to stock it. You know > what equipment would simplify the next try. > So you spend some energy... and haul up stuff to the secure place > and build a camp. For sure, the > next expedition can go *far far* higher! > > 4) Just build equipment down in the valley. Don't go up before it's > perfect! > > > So, I don't know what you would do. I would do 3). It has some really boring > components, this Plan 3. Hauling stuff > up the mountain is not fun. It's not glorious. And there are no Sherpas to > hire. In Research at the University, > there are no engineers. The PhD-Students and Researchers need to cary > everything themselves... not working together, > not having fun together while doing will mean that you can't do it. > > So Pharo, up to now, is just that: Hauling equipment and food up the mountain > to form a stabilized camp. It's not > really that high. (other expeditions are laughing: "This is a trivial. What > idiots. They have no Vision"). > But they have *no camp* at all. > And as soon as ours is ready, we rest, and than we build the next... and the > next, and the next. Higher and Higher up. > > I always wonder how high we would already be (with lots of equipment and > well-rested), if we would have used this strategy > the last 10 years for Squeak. But we did not. > > VPRI is doing 2). The Squeak community prefers 1). Squeak 3.11 was 4). > > But I fear, the magic device will never be discovered... and Squeak died in > 3.11 because there was no visible artifact. > > And starting all the time from the bottom is just not going to work (it did > in the 70ties, when hills where small... Dan wrote > a paper about it even... but with the mountains of today, no way...). > > So... back to haulin' more stuff.... > > Marcus > > -- > Marcus Denker -- http://www.marcusdenker.de > > > _______________________________________________ > Pharo-project mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project _______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project
