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Squeak Report for 2005
Last updated at 8:37 pm UTC on 1 November 2006
Posted to the Squeak Mailing Lists by Goran Krampe, June 2005:

Subject: [REPORT] Report 3, kick in the behind!
From: goran.krampe@bluefish.se
Date: June 9, 2005 8:47:16 AM EDT
To: squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org
Reply-To: squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org

Hi fellow Squeakers!

So far I (Göran) have been the one who have written the reports and I
have waited with this one faaaaar too long. First I waited so that I
could post it when 3.8 was finally announced and ready. Then I waited to
find some time in the midst of finding a new job. :)

Now 3.8 IS ready (hehe, well, not sure if Michael has released yet
another image with french included etc but anyway...) and now I HAVE
found myself a new employer (yay!) so now is the time to kick ourselves
in the collective... behind! :)

Squeak 3.8 was targeted for release... waaay back. What can we say?
Things popped up, issues were fixed, we got delayed. Andreas Raab made a
great effort in refactoring the String hierarchy during the late phase
(triggered by the m17n changes) and we really felt that work needed to
be included or else we would end up in a real mess. Sidenote: There
were some communication outside of squeak-dev about this decision and
Michael made the call.

So anyway, even if the release was dragged out, the people involved -
especially the m17n team with Yoshiki Oshima working hard - really
deserve an applaud!

Now, where are we on the other fronts and what is coming down the road?

(Note that all little "tasks" identified in this report are listed at
the end and have also been entered into the todo-list at the Coordinator
Swiki for follow up)


Release 3.8
————
The 3.8 release is up on the file area, but we need to update the
website - the old one - because the new one will probably take a
liiiittle while longer getting ready. We also need to go through the
Squeak Swiki and update relevant pages there - a volunteer is needed for
that task.

I (Göran) am pitching in to get these things done, I am in contact with
Dan to finally move www.squeak.org to the new server (then it will be
easy to modify the specific pages for the 3.8 release) and I will also
take part in getting the new website running.

We will also need someone in charge of the 3.8 update stream for post
release fixes - Michael Rueger has been release boss of 3.8, and
possibly he is interested in taking on this (Michael?), given that 3.8
is an important release for the Squeakland community - but if not then
we need someone to put in charge of that. In essence it is about
backporting fixes.

Finally, the "Worlds Of Squeak" demo projects need a caring hand. If
someone is interested and willing the job is to recreate them in 3.8
which typically involves some manual labor of love. Contact Michael
Rueger in that case. :)


Teams
——-
Teams were formed over various tasks, the current table is here
(including a description of the model):

http://swiki.krampe.se/castaways/6 (note that the swiki has changed
URL)

Now when this report is out we will make sure we get a status report
from each Team.

One thing worth mentioning is that we are looking for a new Website Team
leader - Jason Rogers expressed some interest and since that Team is...
a "high priority" I will make sure we get it nailed ASAP. Jason? Are you
up for it? :)

Finally, now we have been running the Team model for a little while and
we have seen that Teams tend to "slow down" after the initial burst of
initiative - as expected. But is there something inherently wrong in the
model or is there something we can improve to possibly maintain
momentum? And are there other things in the model we can improve?


Infrastructure
—————–
Our server box1 is humming along. We have been discussing moving over to
a real box to gain disc space and RAM, but nothing decided just yet. The
Team for the server will possibly give more details in the upcoming Team
reports.


Burning issues, again!
————————–
When we formed the Coordinators we compiled a list of "burning issues":

http://swiki.krampe.se/castaways/2

...and it is IMHO a pretty good list covering most things that just
aren't working that well. So... let's all read it - at least once - and
then post your best idea. So please, please, read - think - post.


3.9

Doug has the ball being the release boss of 3.9. Help him. Simple as
that. I know there are people itching to get moving, but please, work
with Doug here. And in moving forward with 3.9, Doug has a plan to get
the update stream working again, read more at:

Update Stream Plan for 3.9

Doug has said that he is focusing entirely on this now, so do help him
in any way possible.


The Coordinators
——————-
The Coordinator group got a bit silent for a while, we have all been
busy for different reasons.

Now we need to get ourselves moving again and we think we need to
enlarge the group a teeny bit. Today we are 4 (Doug, me, Cees, Marcus -
and Dan of course) and we want to add 2 more people.

Note that the Coordinators do "coordination" :), so we don't need to be
very many. The real work is done in the Teams. But we do feel that we
could use 2 more willing souls. Thus we will be asking people that we
think would fit into the group, typically people that have been active
in the community for a long time. You may of course contact us if you
are interested.


Stakeholders
————–
Now seems like a good time to make some real use of the contact
persons we gathered from the "Stakeholder" communities.

We intend to (together with someone, Dan?) whip together a "survey" that
we can distribute to the contact persons with questions about what is
important to them, both now and in the future. The survey should cover
both technical issues (The inclusion of Traits is a good example) and
community related issues (how we are working etc). We will be bouncing
the survey on squeak-dev before we send it out, so you will be able to
give feedback on the choice of questions.

In short - we need to get a better grip on the expectations in order to
figure out how to meet them best. This survey will be my primary item
next after getting 3.8 properly published on the website.

regards, Göran Krampe


Tasks identified in this report
———————————-

Everyone:
- Think about the Team model, what can we improve? Think, post. Subject
tag: [TEAM]
- Burning issues! Read, think, post. Subject tag: [BURN]
- Follow Doug's lead on 3.9. Harvest etc.

Coordinators:
- Make sure Team reports are posted.
- Find someone to take charge of the 3.8 post release stream
(backporting fixes)
- Get 3.8 properly published on www.squeak.org
- Find 2 more Coordinators

Website team:
- Get new website out

Göran and Dan:
- Move www.squeak.org to box1
- Find new Website Team leader
- Produce and send out survey to stakeholder contact persons

Volunteers:
- Worlds Of Squeak remake in 3.8
- Get 3.8 properly published on the Squeak Swiki