Is the sequence:  dev, alpha, beta, release?

no alpha=dev

Okay.

We are working on Modules for Pharo now this is tricky and it can impact the complete system.

Yes, it is very tricky and can cause chaos and destroy much utility if not managed correctly.

Since Squeak3.9 I���m working on removing hardocded usage of Smalltalk instead of an environment or se;lf class environment. 

So that one day we can try module/namespace for real. 

Now when porting code from VW to Pharo 1.0 :)

I just did a mapping 

���������������������� namespace to prefix and change the class name in VW to have prefixName. 

This is basically what the exporters are doing from VW. 

Right.

I don���t see Spec2 in Pharo 8.  I suppose I need to load it.

No it is directly in.

In a virgin 8.0 dev image I see refs to ���Spec��� in Packages but not to ���Spec2���.

Is the Spec book still relevant? 

Not fully we will start to port the book.

Okay.

Is Spec2 mostly about the back-end changes for use of GTK?

No it is a massive change. 

- Introducing new layouts (deprecated the interpreter design)

- soon using Commander2 for menus and the rest

- many many cleans

- Introduction of application and more.

Okay, sounds good.

Shaping