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

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 01:45:51AM -0500, anothy@cosym.net wrote:
>
> 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.
>
That's where the _noise_ comes in.  We could wish for an elite of
really cool programmers, of the caliber we're familiar with, but
without Bell Labs' selection criteria, we have to allow natural
selection to perform the discrimination.

> 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.
> ?

Well, let's see if we can agree: XML, GCC, X, C++, JAVA, Perl, off
the cuff, have all drawn criticism on this list.  None of the
criticism has addressed the social need, as you so eloquently
explain in your example, to support these entities in some fashion
or provide alternatives, even if only as opening moves towards
superior replacements.

Maybe I expect too much, but I'd like to see the type of comment
that encourages the developer to consider alternatives and eventually
produces them, even if somewhere in the quest for acceptance some
principles have to be compromised.o

For example, C++ is too unwieldy to implement efficiently, but a
few features, such as extensions to structs, operator overloading
might be worth adding to the C compiler for the benefit of compiling
existing code, on the assumption that only some C++ extensions have
really gained popularity.  Purists will frown on such suggestions,
and their opinion should be noted, but not necessarily followed.

I could get myself excommunicated from here by listing all the
heresies I have considered, the above is just a sample.  My feeling
is that one needs a place where heresies are vented in public, draw
appropriate criticism and what valid essence they have becomes part
of the core entity.  A CVS repository could be a start, but without
the participation of the Plan 9 team (which incidentally would
mirror, magnified, Linus Torvald's role in the Linux kernel) it
would soon deteriorate to bulk for the sake of publication.  Maybe
I'm just dreaming, because something along these lines ought to
develop of its own accord, but my fear is that criticism of "foreign"
products discourages such contributions.

++L