lb5 Gestational age

[metro]

This is a simple question without any hidden agenda, I know the conception for lb5 was some (long)  time back and there have been some very difficult times nursing her through to this point.

I expect there will be many more hurdles to overcome before she is finally let loose (I was going to use set free but she should not be free).

I have absolutely no idea how much effort and dedication it takes to undertake something as big as coding a programming language but am curious to understand how much longer it may take to have

the first major release.

I do appreciate there is no urgency for windows users as what we have now with lb4.5.1 is more power than all but a few of us could ever contemplate using.

BUT for those of us using Linux the writing is on the wall......see below.

Apart from my age being a problem , my intellect is in a steady decline (inverse relationship) so I do not want to learn (maybe can't learn) another language.

So Carl, are you able to have an educated guess as to the delivery date of lb5.00.

If it's only a year or two we (Linux users) may have some hope.

Thanks in advance, and thanks for your dedication and commitment to your baby.

[Chris Iverson]

Note that this just means that Ubuntu would not be building and shipping 32-bit compatibility binaries themselves; 32-bit libraries could still be obtained if you wanted/needed them.

Also, many other distributions would still have worked(Debian, which Ubuntu is based on, being one of them.)

Additionally, this only applied to future versions of Ubuntu. 18.04, an LTS release with five years of support from Canonical, would still be capable of running 32-bit applications, through 2023. (It would still work beyond that, you just wouldn't be getting any updates or support from the Ubuntu services.)

Even past that, they did announce a plan to support 32-bit Linux by maintaining the 18.04(Last LTS) API for Snap-packaged apps. Since they've moved it to at least past 20.04, which is the next LTS release, that means that official, mainline OS support for 32-bit apps in Ubuntu isn't going anywhere until at least 2025, and they could still choose to either extend it again, or at least go forward with the Snappak idea. (Not sure how well that would work for LB5, though; I'm curious if it would trigger GPL restriction issues, depending on the needed libraries.)

Again, this all applies just to Canonical, and Ubuntu. Other Linux distributions can do whatever the heck they want.


Also, this depends on Carl's toolset vendor. If they wind up providing a version of VisualWorks Smalltalk that's 64-bit compatible, then there'd be absolutely no issues on Linux at all.

(It won't be a problem on Windows, because the only way to get Microsoft to remove functionality as widespread as 32-bit support is to literally make it impossible to run on hardware. Microsoft is very dedicated to backwards compatibility, even if they don't always get it right.)

[metro]

Thank for your insight Chris, I use Mint Linux so was fearful of the impact this decision may have.
after reading your post I realised Mint have started using Debian as a base too so the issue may not raise its head for some time. (if at all)

[Carl Gundel]

I hope to have this all done by year's end, but we'll see.

Don't worry about the 32-bitness of things. There will also be a 64-bit version for Linux, and for Windows and for MacOS.