Re: [9fans] Rant (was Re: Plan9 and Ada95?)

[anothy@cosym.net]

// I have never used plan 9's httpd, but from the features list it seem
// very good.  Certainly can't fault it from the client's perspective.

i can't say i recomend it. apache was a reasonable example; it really
_might_ make sense to port it (i don't think so, but it might). i
certainly believe something more robust than what we've got now would be
very usefull.

// ...suggesting that Mozilla be ported to Plan 9.

this is the same discussion as apache, i think. there are features that
we want: good html rendering, good javascript support, good set of
plugins (where good in those three cases, unfortunatly, really should be
read as "what web developers expect"). this is very hard to do. but so
is porting Mozilla (i looked at it. breifly). someone interested in
exerting effort to get these features needs to decide where to spend her
effort. a cost/gain decision.

// ...it takes a large community of developers to produce (amongst the
// noise) good, solid products.

i don't think this is so, but i'm not sure it's what you intended to
say, either. elsewhere you seem to argue that it takes a large
community of developers to produce _lots_ of _different_type_ of good,
solid products. and i'd agree with that.

there is a balance to be struck between the usefulness of importing
foreign code and the danger of doing so - diluting the system's
benefits, turning it into "just another unix". as such, i'm still not
sure what i think of the GCC port. GCC is ugly and awful. but it can
give me things that i want. like helping me get rid of the one
remaining Solaris box i run, when i can build the two things we use
it for that're in c++ on Plan 9. then i can get the web developer
who writes code for those two bits to be writing code on Plan 9, and
i have a chance at migrating him to better things.

i guess i just don't see the "party line" bit. maybe it's there, but i
don't see it. i find this to be a much more open forum than most others
i've spent time in, computer-related or not.
ア