[Cuis-dev] [Ann] First sketch of Cuis 6.1 release - Please REVIEW and TEST!

[Juan Vuletich]

Hi Hilaire,

Thanks for your comments.

One possible point is that the needs of end users using an app may not 
be the same those of developers using a Smalltalk system.

In any case, I'm building the Cuis 6.2 release today. I hope everybody 
gets the chance to try it. May be many find it is a reasonable solution. 
More on this later today.

Thanks,

On 12/24/2023 3:03 PM, Hilaire Fernandes via Cuis-dev wrote:
>
> Hi Juan & al,
>
> I am just catching up.
>
> This is always a good idea to ease the start-up experience to new 
> Cuis-Smalltalk users. I am sure it will have important impact. I 
> tested on Ubuntu 23.10, it  works smoothly.
>
> Regarding all-in-one application, I have been using it a lot in the 
> past with Dr. Geo, then at some point stopped using it. I stopped for 
> technical reasons, but then I realized there were also end user 
> reasons to stop using it.
>
> Indeed, it adds complexity that does not serve the end user. For 
> example, a Linux user will see VM, scripts for the Windows user. Will 
> this Linux user uses this same folder structure to execute Cuis on a 
> Windows machine? No, because he's using Linux. Then it does not scale 
> very well. Will you add VM for Linux on Arm, on RiscV? Then we can 
> argue the same with image, why both 64bits and 32bits, the end user 
> will only use one variant of it.
>
> The truth about all-in-one application is it makes the life easier for 
> the developers and people deploying end-user applications, like me 
> with DrGeo. You just need to upload one package and that's it. In a 
> such momentum, we should realize it is not a good sign, we are not 
> serving the end-user first, but ourself.
>
> What will be make life easier for end user is an archive to download 
> containing the VM and the image it needs. That's it.
>
> I will use your CuisExperiment as a base to automate the building of 
> Cuis-Smalltalk distributions with various combination of VM binary and 
> image (32|64 bits). You will have MacIntel, MacARM, Windows, 
> LinuxIntel, LinuxArm, LinuxRiscV associated with appropriate image and 
> VM. Does not Github offer service to automate packages built? I have 
> just migrated DrGeo repository to Github, I will take a look to that 
> (https://github.com/hilaire/drgeo).
>
> Then you will have a set up that could scale more easily to any 
> additional needs like embedded system. And you will be free to arrange 
> the distribution in a way that fit the host (Mac is a bit special)
>
> I feel it could also add visibility to Cuis-Smalltalk to have these 
> different distributions, it will talk more specifically to the end 
> user and will have a wow effect. Compare all-in-one and LinuxIntel64 
> names. The later one is crystal clear, not the former one.
>
> Regarding the current folder structure, I will try to hide the 
> complexity a bit more. I will have only two top level folders. To 
> illustrate, this is what a Linux user sees when entering the DrGeo app 
> folder:
>
> DrGeo
> ├── ChangeLog
> ├── DrGeo.sh
> ├── License.txt
> ├── README
> ├── Resources
> ├── transcript.txt
> └── VM
>
> Even the VM should not be visible to be honest. It should be moved in 
> the Resources folder.
>
> Nevertheless, all-in-one distribution will be already an important 
> progress and of course my opinion can be completely discarded without 
> harm.
>
> Have a nice day.
>
> Hilaire
>
> Le 24/12/2023 à 13:28, Juan Vuletich via Cuis-dev a écrit :
>>
>> The upcoming 6.1 release will be the first of a new series of 
>> releases. We'll be doing a "stable release" that will later only 
>> include critical fixes, every six months. This will be done in 
>> addition to our usual rolling release, and it will follow the RedHat 
>> Linux release process.
>>
>> The stable releases are intended for:
>> - People who don't want to deal with constant updates and breakage, 
>> and prefer to port their code to a new system from time to time.
>> - Building End User Applications.
>> - Casual users, who just want to take a look at Cuis.
>> - People new to Smalltalk.
>> - Students who will be using Smalltalk for a semester.
>>
>> For many of these use cases, I want to include only consistently high 
>> quality code. So every package included needs to be currently in use, 
>> tested, well maintained, etc. We'll need to work out a way to deal 
>> with additional packages, from Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev repo, other repos 
>> from Cuis-Smalltalk organization, and other repos outside of it. This 
>> is just an initial version. It will grow.
>>
>> Thanks, 
> -- 
> GNU Dr. Geo
> http://gnu.org/s/dr-geo/
> http://gnu-drgeo.blogspot.com/


-- 
Juan Vuletich
cuis.st
github.com/jvuletich
researchgate.net/profile/Juan-Vuletich
independent.academia.edu/JuanVuletich
patents.justia.com/inventor/juan-manuel-vuletich
linkedin.com/in/juan-vuletich-75611b3
twitter.com/JuanVuletich

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