Extending squeak or pharo

Question

Using Monticello package manager does not seem to guarantee that, once you added the interesting package(s), the total image is still coherent. Are there any ways to verify that? Are dependencies verified? Are there guidelines in that direction?

Answer 1

I think you're looking for Metacello, a package and configuration manager for Monticello.

You can check out this guide: Managing projects with Metacello, and also there's a page on Google code

Answer 2

While Monticello actually has the possibility to ensure that dependencies are met, it is limited to the form “this Monticello version depends on exactly these other Monticello versions”. Also, specifying these dependencies is a bit hidden in the Monticello browser and, above all, scarcely used in the community.

As Uko said, Metacello is exactly intended to solve the problem of dependency management in Smalltalk systems. It is not limited to Monticello, conceptually. To my knowledge, most GemStone, Pharo, and Squeak images come with Metacello pre-installed or easily installable.

Have a look at the blog of Metacello’s author, Dale Henrichs, where he gives some introduction to using Metacello.

There is also the Metacello Repository, where most configurations (think software receipts) can be found.

Answer 3

Monticello's responsibility ends with loading individual packages. Coherence comes with either Metacello (see Uko's answer) or with SqueakMap.

SqueakMap stores install scripts that ensure that entire applications get loaded into your image.