[9fans] Forks of Plan 9 (Was: 9vx instability)

[lucio@proxima.alt.za (Lucio De Re)]

> That's what I was saying. We are working in nix in such a way that we
> hope the code we are working on could be used by the stock Plan 9
> in the future. So, it's a fork, but we are still trying to cooperate with
> everyone else.

Branching seems to be a black hole, though: there is no easy way to
bring forks into line with each other unless the divergences are few
and very small.  In my particular case, there is no way that I can
progress from Plan 9 to nix, so there is no room for me to contribute
to nix.

Now, if we can isolate the portions of the Plan 9 distribution that
can grow equally for all forks (9front, nix) from the, hopefully
smaller, portions that define the different platforms, we will have a
world in which contributions, mechanically, can be propagated
everywhere.  By making the different sections as small as possible,
preferably actively trying to shrink them by propagating changes
between them as frequently as possible, we may cause them to converge.

But the keyword here is "actively" and demands the allocation of
resources or, at minimum, intent that is absent in a competitive
environment.

++L