[ANSI-Smalltalk] proposed motto

[Peter van Rooijen]

On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:06:47 +0100, Bruce Badger <bwbadger at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On 17/11/2007, Peter van Rooijen <peter at vanrooijen.com> wrote:
>> My preference for a motto would probably go to something very short and
>> simple such as:
>>
>> "Smalltalk Application Portability"
>>
>> which has to me the feel both of an ambition (as something to strive  
>> for)
>> and of a goal (as something that can actually be achieved).
>
> I understood Ralph to be saying that we ought to allay the fears of
> some Squeakers that standards work means placing a limit on the
> vitality and creativity of the Squeak community. Hence the longer
> motos such as Eliot's (which I also happen to rather like btw).

I am sure that Ralphs comments are very sensible. I also notice that he is  
proposing a motto for the standards group, i.e., the people working on the  
standard (not for the standard itself - something that could be on the  
cover as a kind of subtitle). It makes a lot of sense to me that that  
group would want to reach out to people involved with all dialects and  
make that clear in its communications too.

> Peter, are you saying that we should not ignore the Squeakers apparent
> concerns, or address them in a different way?

Without knowing of any specific concerns it would be quite difficult for  
me to say how they should influence the standards group. Is anybody  
objecting to making it easier to move applications across dialects with  
less effort? Is anybody proposing that we make it more difficult for  
Smalltalkers to improve their dialects or environments? I would be a bit  
surprised if that was the case.

I think the way in which I was thinking about a motto was perhaps more as  
a goal and ambition for the standard itself. I have spent quite some time  
working with the 98 standard and for me a really major goal is that people  
are able to write something on one dialect and bring it to another dialect  
easily, and have that something work there with very little or no effort.

Okay just some thoughts...

Thanks, Peter


-- 
Peter van Rooijen
Esstede 19
1112 EP Diemen
m: 06-2854 2048