For the ones that were not there at that time. Study history as always been a way to understand the present :) Begin forwarded message:

From: Matthew Fulmer <tapplek@gmail.com> Date: February 28, 2009 6:26:00 AM CEST To: Marcus Denker <denker@iam.unibe.ch>, St?phane Ducasse <stephane.ducasse@inria.fr

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Cc: Matthew Fulmer <tapplek@gmail.com> Subject: Some personal thoughts and questions about Pharo

Hi. I stumbled across a rather interesting email while I was researching to write up my campaign platform for the squeak election. Stef wrote this email 4 years ago, and it challenged a lot of what I thought about Pharo:

http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2005-January/087532.h...

It prompted me to write this email, and lay out exactly what I think about Pharo, both good, bad, and not understood.

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From what I can tell, this email was written just before you guys started the 3.9 team.

Firstly, I see that you have really cared about bug response latency for a long time. I'm really glad you care and do something about it.

Second, you solved this problem back then by releasing 3.9, and now you are solving it thru Pharo. Why did you choose to fork this time?

If I may be blunt, I've long suspected that there are exactly two reasons why you forked: 1. Edgar J. De. Cleene 2. Andreas Raab

Thirdly, I've heard Stef mention a number of times that "Marcus got burned", and therefore doesn't read squeak-dev, or no longer runs for board, or several things most squeak people do. However, this is by far the earliest mention of said burning I've ever seen. I had assumed the burning was people (Edgar and Andreas) complaining about Traits, but this was long before that.

What is it that happened to Marcus? If you are still bitter about something that happened over 4 years ago, perhaps it is time to forgive and re-join the squeak community.

As 3.11 release team leader, and Squeak board nominee, I'm really excited about what you guys are doing with Pharo. From my perspective, one thing you have done is take up the reigns for harvesting bugs, and left the release team free to consider a long-standing issue in the community: who is responsible for merging bug fixes from one distribution to another, and how can we make their lives easier

Another valuable thing you have done is show the community that one image does not fit all; the monolithic image does not work for anybody. Squeakland showed it does not work for end-users Croquet showed it does not work for researchers. And now Pharo shows that it does not work for developers. I really think that Pharo finishes painting that picture in the minds of the community, and you have thus paved the way for the release team and the squeak board to get away from the monolithic image, and toward modularity. I really think the community is ready now, and it's all thanks to you guys. I intend to exploit this opportunity.

I sent this email in private, because I don't think it would be appropriate to ask some of these questions publicly. However, feel free to reply to any of this in public, as you see fit.

-- Matthew Fulmer -- http://mtfulmer.wordpress.com/