Re: [9fans] Re: Building GCC

["Paulo Pocinho" <pocinho@gmail.com>]

Em Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:41:02 -0000, <pavlovetsky@gmail.com> escreveu:

> Returning to my main point: it is productive to let many Plan 9
> appearances to be. If you insist on developing the core technologies
> and push forward ideas - fine.
  (...)
> I really can understand the reason why people object porting things to
> Plan 9. It is like making bazaar in a cathedral, right? This, I think,
> means to force the operating system to stay in research form for the
> sake of computer scientists themselves! Lets drop web browser and KDE
> for a while and say this: there are cool, interactive scientific
> visualisation tools I would like to use along with fossil+venti
> infrastructure and Plan 9 tools and I would like to see them
> integrated with each other really well. As I said, it is absolutely
> impossible to reinvent everything again, so the question is how to
> integrate the already existing applications for UNIX and Plan 9. I
> vote for emulation.

It's not a question of "reinvent". Let me explain.

I see Plan 9 as a proof of concept that popular technology is obsolete.
Every time I talk to someone about it, there is always some orthodox
defensive.
Why?
Are people blind by the apparent smoothness of a popular system because
it has everything one could expect?

IMO, people should have distance and figure out if there is really
something that should be "reinvented".
Read about why Ken hated tcp when he tried to implement it.
And I can't stop wondering why DMR uses w*ndo*s.
Whatever the reasons, it really doesn't matter. Does it?

If I can imagine seeing things from a Plan 9 user perspective, and
something really bothers me because I am amused to see some youtube
flash, something ought to be wrong.

The system works - nicely. So where's the catch?
Is it because Plan 9 users should want/need/miss pop tech in a system
where everything is state of the art technology?
No.
It is because the first time anyone uses Plan 9 there is this feeling,
a gasp in awe, everything is so simple that makes out brain ache.
We have been brought up spoiled in a pop tech world.
If we want/need/miss anything it is not from pop tech. It is from Plan 9.

There is no need to "reinvent". It's all in there.

(Again, I have that airy feeling that some won't see the point I made
and think I am going in a circle.)