Re: [Sc-devel] Re: Quarks and svn

["James Harkins" <jamshark70@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Dec 14, 2007 2:40 PM, felix <felix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> but one of the things about smalltalky-things and especially the sc
> environment is that the community often agrees to make changes to the
> default library, and this often impacts quarks.
>
> so an svn quark is assumed to be kept easily up to date with the svn (HEAD)
> of sc itself.
>
> my assumption is that a quark is HEAD, just as sc is currently HEAD.
>
> for a binary distribution, its supposed to be a freeze frame.

I think this is correct.

If you're a new user, you want a "download and it works" scenario. I
think it's good to avoid external dependencies as much as possible for
new users.

If you want to stay on the bleeding edge of new changes, it's entirely
fair to assume more sophistication and to require use of svn in that
case.

> and really, leute, considering the amazing amount of frustration and head
> scratching that sc unleashes on its victims, is this business about svn
> really such a road block ?

New user comes in and says "I want to do xyz." Somebody says, you
should use this whizbang quark that does exactly what you want.

New user says, "how do I get it?" And the answer is... first you have
to download svn... "svn whut now?"... then you'll have that
certificate error... new user says "screw it, back to Fruityloops."

And are we sure that the Quarks **unix**Cmd's will be Windows
compatible? I think this is where the "svn isn't so bad" argument
breaks down -- unless I'm missing something, are we leaving out a
whole operating system?

--

Maybe the right thing to do for the moment is not futz around with the
quarks code, put all the quarks in the binary download, with
instructions to copy the folders into DefaultLibrary to use a given
package. I think we don't need to worry about how users are going to
update packages that came with the binary distribution. If they want
to update, it isn't too much trouble to ask them to use svn because
updating frequently is already several steps above basic use.

hjh

-- 
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
jamshark70@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dewdrop-world.net

"Come said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted,
Sing me the universal."  -- Whitman