On Wed, Aug 18, 2021, at 10:18 AM, Keith Gibbs wrote:
> 
> And tools die or are replaced over time.  8 1⁄2 was the standard in Plan 9, but due to it’s limitations and quirks, a new one was written from scratch. Now we, 30 years later, are arguing that every line of code handed down from our honoured and sainted forebears is gospel truth? Really? 

Oh dear! This old argument is getting heated again? I don't miss the old flame wars.  But I think the old wars had a somewhat different motive.  Some people argued furiously for the "One True Plan 9" and against forks, but as soon as the last Plan 9 maintainer left the remains of Bell Labs, most of them just stopped posting.  (So did some nicer people.)  They were evidently arguing for a maintained system, but they also seemed to be opposed to almost all change.  Perhaps they were opposed to all change which didn't suit themselves, but the more I recall, the less rational these people seem to be.  Sometimes, they'd even be furious with someone for doing the very thing they'd told him to do.  "If you want it, do it yourself," so the person would put a lot of effort in to do it, and then they'd be furious with him.  The earliest such incident I know of goes back to the very people who developed Plan 9.  With this history, I don't particularly want to honor the original Plan 9 and would hate to see the wars rekindled.

All the same, there is a surprising practical consideration:

> I think what you are confusing is that since I (and many others, whether on the 9front side or no) want to see Plan 9 evolve and grow, that somehow that will ruin *your* Plan 9.

Unfortunately, this is a more difficult issue than you might think.  If someone is reliant on a particular fork and doesn't have the time, energy, or skills to make alterations as needed, they can be hurt by changes, even surprisingly small changes.  Changing Rio's scrolling behaviour might be trivial, but at a time when I was heavily dependent on a particular scrolling behaviour, 9front changed it and I had no free time or energy to even think about how to change it back.  I switched to an older version of Rio, but then I missed a different fix 9front had made.

The more I think about it, the more I think I'd like 9legacy's approach of patches over a relatively static system, but I haven't actually tried it and I certainly wouldn't want to limit anyone else's choices.
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