> But how do we make the SM entries for a particular package and a particular Squeak version? *That* is where I see the bottleneck.
>
> Someone who figures out a load procedure because they need a certain package in their image, with all its dependencies, must have a simple way to share that, in a way that does not require contacting anyone else.
Absolutely, my opinion for deploying to SqueakMap is, just make a
self-contained SAR with everything needed. It's the only way to
ensure it will always work, forever. This allows it to be truly
one-click installable, and I don't worry about disk space or if it is
using an old version of X or Y dependent package. I'm only interested
in it being easily one-click loadable and working so an interested
party can see just _see the software_.
Creating a self-contained SAR with everything needed was a major
bottleneck for me, too, until I finally got fed up and wrote
MaSarPackage. Making one-click loadable SAR's for deployment on
SqueakMap is now much easier. MaSarPackage because it handles all the
labor and eliminates the errors of building SAR's.
It includes a rudimentary (Maui-based) UI with the following menus:
"packages" "sources" "files" "script" "generate"
"packages" is where all the PackageInfo's (including pre-requisite
packages) are specified. Although the author must specify the initial
entire set of necessary packages, the *order* of them is determined by
the tool by just clicking #sortPackages. #sortPackages analyzes their
dependencies and orders them in load-dependent order!
"sources" is where the MC source repositories are that contain the
packages specified under packages. This is calculated automatically
based on the packages selected, but the user can add or change the
sources to another location, if desired.
"files" list the actual files that will be included in the SAR.
Additional "resource" files can be added or removed on this tab.
"script" is the load script which is generated automatically based on
packages and files added under their respective tabs. The script can
be further customized, if necessary, for special initialization or
whatever.
The last step, "generate" takes everything that has been defined, and
creates a .SAR file with the name of your choice.
With a tool to relieve the pain of publishing to SqueakMap, I think SM
can be a useful tool for publishing demos.