[squeak-dev] Squeak Forks Popularity & Trends Estimate

There's no right or wrong answer to the following three questions.  And,
every response is meaningful, because it helps reveal the general sense
of direction that the community is feeling.

***********************
Question #1: Of the various Squeak forks (such as Croquet, Pharo, etc.),
what is your feeling of their relative popularities at this point in
time, and how does that compare with the current popularity of the base
Squeak distribution?

Question #2: This is related to the above-- what is your feeling of the
relative popularity *trend* of each of the forks, and how does that
compare with your feeling of the *trend* of the future popularity of the
base Squeak distribution?

Question #3: What is your justification for your answers to the above
two questions?
************************

I'll begin with my own answers...

...I'm beginning to feel like the Pharo fork currently now has maybe 50%
or more of the popularity of the base Squeak distro, and I'm beginning
to feel like Pharo is headed to become the dominant distribution in the
future, surpassing the original Squeak distro.  And I base that feeling
on several observations:

1. The email traffic comparison on the "Pharo-project" email list
compared to the email traffic on "The general-purpose Squeak developers
list", and the observed trend in such traffic.

2. The number of developers posting on the Pharo-project email list.

3. The specific developers posting on the Pharo-project email list
(known Squeakers who have contributed heavily to Squeak in the past).

4. The fact that Seaside development has moved to Pharo.

At one time I wondered if Croquet would become the dominant Squeak fork,
for the simple reason that it had a business organization "officially"
supporting it, similar to what Squeak had in the Disney days.  But now I
think I would bet my money on Pharo.

What do you think?  And why?

Also, remember, there's certainly nothing wrong with several "dominant"
forks existing.  But of those, one of them will still be the most
popular overall.  And I'm curious about thoughts of which one that is,
and which one that will become, and why you think so.

Nevin

>>>>> "Nevin" == Nevin Pratt <[hidden email]> writes:

Nevin> 4. The fact that Seaside development has moved to Pharo.

This means nothing in terms of where Seaside is actually used.  It just means
that some of the key developers of Seaside prefer Pharo.  You could just as
easily develop Seaside on VW, now that bidirectional Monticello works on VW.

--
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