Hi Ben,
- Java support is mentioned as planned to be at least usable by the end
of 2018, but isn't mentioned in any of the quarterly milestones. Given how significant Java support is, it should probably be in one or more of the milestones.
we are just getting our toes wet and don't want to promise too much. The risks and scope of the undertaking are too vague for a more definite planning.
- With Qt5 packages planned for the same release as Sculpt for The
Curious, we should include a graphical text editor. I have already written a simple text editor, and with a little improvement, it will be ready to be included in that release. I suspect that it will make Sculpt much more inviting to users who are unfamiliar with Vim.
I'd like to avoid including Qt into the base image because it would inflate the image (and the thereby increase the boot time) quite noticeably. However, acknowledging the inconvenience that Vim may represent for some users, we could at least strive to alleviate the need for Vim for tweaking typical settings (network, wifi, keyboard layout, mouse acceleration, screen resolution) in Sculpt for The Curious. I am thinking of simple interactive dialogs based on the menu-view component. So users won't need to use Vim for everyday tasks.
Of course, a graphical editor could be featured in the non-initial stage in the form of a package. I hope that this will provide you with a nice way to distribute and promote your desktop-environment work.
Cheers Norman