Re: [9fans] Plan9 - the next 20 years

["J.R. Mauro" <jrm8005@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 12:16 AM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>> But I'll say that if anyone tries to solve these problems today, they
>> should not fall into the same trap,  [...]
>
> yes.  forward thinking was just the thing that made multics
> what it is today.
>
> it is equally a trap to try to prognosticate too far in advance.
> one increases the likelyhood of failure and the chances of being
> dead wrong.
>
> - erik
>
>

I don't think what I outlined is too far ahead, and the issues
presented are all doable as long as a small bit of extra consideration
is made.

Keeping your eye only on the here and now was "just the thing" that
gave Unix a bunch of tumorous growths like sockets and X11, and made
Windows the wonderful piece of hackery it is.

I'm not suggesting we consider how to solve the problems we'll face
when we're flying through space and time in the TARDIS and shrinking
ourselves and our bioships down to molecular sizes to cure someone's
brain cancer. I'm talking about making something scale across
distances and magnitudes that we will come accustomed to in the next
five decades.