Re: [9fans] bell-labs website and plan9

["ron minnich" <rminnich@gmail.com>]

possibly inflammatory question: the ideas I've seen proposed so far
don't seem superior in any way to, e.g., mercurial.

Please note, I am sorry if this letter sounds offensive, I do not
intend it to be.

If, somehow, the proposed ideas represent a huge leap in 'something',
it would be nice to know what 'something' is; I'm not getting it from
the descriptions. So far, it all sounds like a bit of a kludge to
cover for our lack of tools and time to build them.

If, instead, the proposed ideas are more of the usual "There is a
better non-Plan 9 system but we don't run it because we (a) can't
compile it (b) don't have software to run it (c) we didn't invent it
(i.e. NIH)", well, then, it's time to start bringing those better
systems in, and put our efforts elsewhere.

My take is that bringing in mercurial, and then using mercurial with
mounted file systems, instead of ssh, would be quite neat. And, we are
close to having it. We've got python, almost. We've just about got
python modules -- actually, I've had them for months. Lots of bits
work that did not used to. We really are pretty close.

Take the best of both worlds, in other words, and create something
new. But, if you can take other's good work, that can be a timesaver.

thanks

ron