Strange colour reversal on the Spec site

Andy Burnett wrote:

Hello,

I am posting here, because I couldn't find a Spec specific list.

Two things:

1. The colour scheme for all the code examples on the site seems to have gone very odd. The text is now a light blue/green on a white background. Almost completely illegible. Has someone changed a css file?

Do have have a specific url?
http://spec.st looks fine to me.

1. I noticed in the news section that the license has changed to GPL, because of a disagreement with the direction of Pharo.  Could someone explain what the disagreement was, and whether this is something we should be concerned about?

Cheers

Andy

ᐧ

It has not been explained beyond it being mostly a personality clash.  There was some final technical issue that went against some existing Smalltalk conventions, but there was not much discussion brought to the community on that conflict.  Note the Spec code already in Pharo is MIT licensed, so there is no concern about that.  I guess in a way it shows how the MIT is more-free than the GPL, that such can occur.  Of course, the reverse cannot. 

I would be concerned about loading external-Spec into a Pharo based project. Although the new dual license seems written to allow parties other than Pharo to use external-Spec in a non-GPL project, the implications of how that might contaminate a Pharo based project is not clear.  Also I guess discussion of external-Spec probably won't proceed on this list, so until I see news of a separate Spec mailing list to collaborate with users and other developers, it would seem that developer has struck out on his own.  Pharo-internal-Spec will continue development here under the MIT license.

cheers -ben

We are passionate people with strong opinions. We have to be, otherwise we would not be spending our time on this language which is not ‘normal’. Sometimes this causes disagreements. Sometimes these disagreements cannot be resolved. When the latter happens, this is a sad thing.

I am not interested in judging, determining who was ‘right’ and who was ‘wrong’. From his/her point of view everybody is ‘right’ (at least to a high degree). I just want to do what, for me, is the best for the overall project. I may be ‘wrong’, but I do not know any better. I’m just another guy, you know? 

All of the above being said, for me, the best action is to give my little bit of support to the version of Spec that is in the Pharo distribution because I think that this is the best for the project. I would like to keep working on the documentation and improving it. Specifically I mean the version that Stef linked to below as it corresponds to what’s in Pharo. I have had some ideas about missing content as well. So when stuff calms down, let’s sync and work on further improving the documentation.

On Sep 10, 2014, at 3:45 PM, stepharo <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hello andy 

    I'm sorry about this story. The pharo board (Tudor Girba, Sven van Cackenberghe, Esteban Lorenzano, Marcus Denker and me) 
     will react officially this is problem. I'm in the board but I do not want that people think that I'm trying any action that would 
    be about personal nature, especially since I personally supported a lot Benjamin during all these years - and I do not understand 
    his sudden action. Now since this is out of my reach, I prefer to focus on making Pharo better and I'm working on that actively :)

    I decided as one of Pharo founder to follow the board and let them handle this situation. I decided that I will not influence nor act
    because I prefer to be in positive mindset and push Pharo further.
    The board told me that they will clarify the situation, especially since there are actions that were not correct. 
     I'm waiting as you for an official statement from the board, and I know that it will come and be really clear.
    As you can imagine the board wants to do it right and settle it as an example for any future frameworks or part (Zinc, Glamour, Athens, TxText, ...) 
    that (will) compose Pharo. 
    We are setting an industrial consortium to push Pharo for real (As you can see in the reporthttp://consortium.pharo.org/web?_s=DiSVVVKk3sFm2ouZ
    Inria put 300 K euros not counting the salary of the permanent members of our team) and rules should be clear and followed. 

    Now the GPL license does not apply to the version of Spec that is available in the Pharo distribution since it is MIT from the beginning
    and it will stay forever as it. We did not fork it. We are actively improving Spec. Some clean ups got already integrated and others are pending. 
    We will maintain and improve the Spec documentation too. For example we will probably add the part 
    written by Stefan Eggermont that was submitted but never integrated. I'm waiting just to avoid adding to the confusion. 

    You can find a version of the Spec documentation as part of the next book:
            https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/job/PharoForTheEnterprise/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/Spec/Spec.pier.pdf
    It may be not fully in par with the github repo but we will sync with Johan Fabry too in the future. 

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