packaging style requests

I have two requests for packaging style, after having delved through
100+ packages for the 3.9 stable universe.

First, SAR's with fancy load-time scripts are often too smart for
their own good when used in a package universe.  A particular example
of this is load-time options.  Instead of having a single SAR with a
load-time option, I wish people would divide the package into smaller
packages.  Then people can install precisely the component packages
they want.  As an example, if package Foo's tests are considered
optional, then just make it two packages.  Post Foo and Foo-Tests,
where Foo-Tests depends on Foo.


Second, we have a lot of readme windows popping up.  A readme popup is
very friendly if you are installing 1 package.  However, with a
package-browsing tool, it's not uncommon to install 5 or 10 packages
at a time.  When you do so, you end up with more windows than the user
can possibly pay attention to.  I was installing 100 at a time
recently, and the result was just comical.


I would like it if we had a registry of readme's, so that packages do
not clutter up the main screen just to announce they are now loaded.
This would help at package-loading time, and also it would mean people
can actually find this documentation again weeks later after the
package is installed.  Barring such a tool, how about we limit
ourselves to one readme per program?  You an always add hyperlinks to
the other ones.


Okay, that's my wishes.  Do with them as you will. Happy Squeaking,
all!  I've had fun browsing through all the great things everyone has
posted.


-Lex

Thanks Lex! Great work.

Lex Spoon a écrit :
There is ScriptManager to do that I think. I use it for the squeak-dev
image and it is very interesting. Would be cool if a system like that is
integrated into Squeak so that packages could just do a:

self addReadmeTitled: 'Dynamic Protocols' containing: '...'

--
Damien Cassou

Damien Cassou <[hidden email]> writes:
> There is ScriptManager to do that I think. I use it for the squeak-dev
> image and it is very interesting. Would be cool if a system like that
> is integrated into Squeak so that packages could just do a:
>
> self addReadmeTitled: 'Dynamic Protocols' containing: '...'

Ohh, nice.

Of course, in a package-universes image, you can depend-on the
ScriptManager package, and then do exactly the above in your package's
post-load code.


-Lex

20 Feb 2007 18:32:27 -0500, Lex Spoon <[hidden email]>:
But it would be better to have that message in the base image even if
ScriptManager is not loaded. Then, the image would display a Workspace
if such a class exist or would put everything in the transcript.

--
Damien Cassou

"Damien Cassou" <[hidden email]> writes:

If your package depends on ScriptManager, then ScriptManager will
always be available by the time your package loads.

Assuming ScriptManager is small, it should be no big deal to depend on
it.  If ScriptManager is big, then it would be better to have a small
subsystem just for managing these readmes.  This could initially be a
separate package, and could later be included in the standard image if
enough people use it.


-Lex

The problem with ScriptManager is that it's graphical. It's small, 1
class, but graphical. If I'm working on a package which does not
depend on a graphical framework, it would be cool to not add a
dependency just for the README. What I suggest is a method on Object
or Class which prints its argument to the Transcript by default. Then,
ScriptManager can override this method. It's not that clean but it's
the only solution I found currently.

26 Feb 2007 14:44:05 -0500, Lex Spoon <[hidden email]>:

--
Damien Cassou

26 Feb 2007 14:44:05 -0500, Lex Spoon <[hidden email]>:
> Assuming ScriptManager is small, it should be no big deal to depend on
> it.  If ScriptManager is big, then it would be better to have a small
> subsystem just for managing these readmes.  This could initially be a
> separate package, and could later be included in the standard image if
> enough people use it.

The problem with ScriptManager is that it's graphical. It's small, 1
class, but graphical. If I'm working on a package which does not
depend on a graphical framework, it would be cool to not add a
dependency just for the README. What I suggest is a method on Object
or Class which prints its argument to the Transcript by default. Then,
ScriptManager can override this method. It's not that clean but it's
the only solution I found currently.

--
Damien Cassou