Whatever helps in keeping the community together is always a good idea, regardless of whether some efforts are shared or not.
I don't know if the idea is to reach beyond the opensmalltalk-vm "cousins" (pharo/squeak/cuis), if that's the case I'd name it "Smalltalk Alliance" or "Smalltalk Federation", otherwise I'd replace "Smalltalk" with "Open Smalltalk". But I'd leave the word "nation" out of this :-) Regards! Esteban A. Maringolo On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 1:17 PM Sean DeNigris <[email protected]> wrote: > > I believe that the Squeak/Pharo/Cuis communit(ies) share one very special > thing, which most of the world has completely missed, and which the world > sorely needs if the true power of computing to unleash and evolve the human > mind is ever to be realized: a love and appreciation for personal > technological augmentation/amplification available to all as represented by > the Dynabook and/or its prototype software (Smalltalk as a concept, not any > version/implementation e.g. Smalltalk-80). > > Like a few survivors after the sinking of Atlantis, we can pick up the > remnants of this dream and resume marching toward the objective (or at least > keep its memory alive until an auspicious time when it can be realized)… or, > like most groups of human beings throughout history who start with a common > aim, we can bicker among ourselves about e.g. historical discrepancies, > personal slights, and conflicting subgoals, and allow those squabbles to > distract us and derail our primary mission. This would be disappointing but > not surprising: it is how every war is started. > > I have contributed, hacked, conferenced, and visited with many members of our > wider community for over a decade now and, maybe because I had the “luxury” > of finding Smalltalk after some of the political lines had been well-drawn, I > can clearly see that we are fundamentally united. I cringe every time I see > cynical, caustic exchanges - both for my participating colleagues who are > obviously in pain - probably exacerbated by their passion for our shared > endevour - and for the counterproductive effect the antagonism is sure to > have on our common goal. Virtually every exchange is between two people who I > personally know to be good and competent. > > Here is my proposal: Let’s form an informal committee - a United Nations of > Smalltalk if you will - including at least one member of each community, who > will collaborate on cooperation between the dialects and mediate any friction > before it boils over. > > I’d be happy to participate, I guess as a representative of the Pharo > community. Although I have no official role in the Pharo leadership, I have > much of my professional life invested there. I often wish I had the time to > keep all my projects compatible with Squeak, but I usually feel like I’m > barely keeping up as it is! > > I hope I’m not alone in these feelings and look forward to the response of > our community (most emphatically singular). This message is being > cross-posted to Pharo-Dev, Squeak-Dev, and Cuis MLs (I think I’m still a > member of all three - fingers crossed…) > > - Sean (DeNigris)
