lack of contributors

[Waldemar Kornewald]

Hi Brian,
you wondered what is wrong with this project? I don't claim to know 
this, either, but here are a few possible issues (let's hope you don't 
misunderstand these suggestions):

Lack of a compiler: even very simple apps are unusable. This should have 
highest priority. Slate must become usable for real-world apps. 
Libraries can be extended by others. The core coders must work on internals.

Fight for C++ and Java programmers! It's a lot easier to get them on 
board than die-hard, conservative Squeak programmers. Slate should 
better be initially seen as a second language, not as a replacement for 
your beloved main programming language. There is no obvious reason why 
Slate should be better than Lisp or Squeak. Concentrate on other 
communities.

You're basically a one-man team. There is no guarantee that this project 
will stay alive for a long time. This relates to:
Sometimes people are pissed off by your mentality. Stay calm. Be polite. 
Keep in mind that everything you say on IRC is read by many people. Do 
you think they will ever want to risk being called an idiot?

You have high expectations. People don't want to be pushed. Let them 
work on something, but don't expect anything as long as they are not 
established team members.

Slate is too complex. It does not feel very elegant. You have to learn 
too many concepts and rules (inheritance, role-based dispatch, 
precedence, traits slots, delegation, macros, syntax, ...). You should 
take this more seriously. One quickly gets overwhelmed by Slate.

The website greets you with a lot of information. Is the feature list 
really needed on the front page? Those features don't tell me very much. 
We want to know the *advantages* of Slate, a few *examples*, and a few 
direct *comparisons* (Java, Squeak, ...).

Bye,
Waldemar