2014-05-14 12:15 GMT-03:00 PBK Research <pe...@pbkresearch.co.uk>: > Esteban > > Well, I am carrying on, but I do wonder why Pharo has to be such a rapidly > moving target. There are virtues in stability, and perhaps there should be a > filtering process before any change is made, to ensure that the benefits > outweigh any disruption.
Well... that might be related with the fact that Pharo "the kernel" is moving faster than many popular Pharo/Squeak libraries. > I must admit that, at times, Pharo looks like a > playground for a fairly small group of very clever people who are in love > with the process of development. I share your feelings about this. It is a playground AND a business platform, supported by very clever people who are in love with it. :) > But am sure that, if I could get the functions of > Magritte and PetitParser in a stable environment like Dolphin, I would drop > Pharo like a shot. Dolphin was (is?) a Smalltalk dialect built by only two clever developers during a long period of time, that built the entire codebase with a high level of coherence not found in other dialects, or software in general. Also, Andy Bower in particular was very skilled about designing user interactions. I always wonder how many people that uses Pharo ever used Dolphin. On the other hand, Pharo carries a lot of legacy code, some part was replaced and the remaining heritage is being replaced as much as possible by new code which is more consistent and coherent with the rest of the codebase. And not only it is rewritten for better understanding, but also to add new features. > While I am in a moaning mood - I'm not always like this! - could anyone tell > me whether there is a glossary of names for Pharo extensions which will tell > beginners like me what they are for and whether they are worth learning > about. I have come across Cairo, Athens, Zinc, Fuel, Spec, Grease and Shout > - just as names, with no idea what they do and no obvious way of finding > out. Is there any place where I can look these things up? They all exist in > the Forum image that I downloaded today, but the system browser contains no > general explanation. This is another thing that, IMO, has to do more with the latest naming trends in general (not only Pharo): You can't infer what is what only by its name. In the past it was all about acronyms, now that practice is almost abandoned, which is a good thing :) Regards, -- Esteban.
