🚀 go-pugleaf

[Tom Christiansen]

|   After attending the VHLL Symposium at Santa Fe where zillions of
|   languages were showed off and talked about, I've been thinking about
|   this new universal scripting language that RMS proposes, the one that's
|   supposed to obsolete all other scripting languages in existence.

really?  I thought RMS wanted to provide a common extension language (which
is not just a "scripting language") for the GNU project.  I have read most
of your hysterical raving with amusement, especially since you still write
so well, but when you go off the deep paranoid end like this, the fun's
beginning to taper off.  relax, dude, he's not after your lunch.

|   If the language is good for generating and parsing things like
|   .Xdefaults or Makefiles or .cliprc files, fine, but if this just forces
|   sysadmins to code in scheme or rush or something, they'll just laugh at
|   you.  Well, until they're FORCED to use it, at which point they'll kick
|   and scream for something easier.

like you know all the sysadmins of the world, Tom.  you probably know those
who agree with you well, but the rest may just think you're nuts, and they
may just be waiting for a smaller set of languages to work with.  perl has
reduced the set of tools needed.  maybe RMS's new language will obsolete it
like perl obsoleted awk?  is that what you're afraid of, Tom?

|   We'll all just keep using yacc and tcl and perl for these (and maybe even
|   ksh and python) and we'll all be happy.

until we see what this will look like "we all" may do just that.  when some
of us have seen what good can come out of a novel idea in an area which the
proponents of the old ideas kick and scream like they're paid for it, "we
all" may deteriate to "some obsolete die-hard camps" plus those who pick up
the best tool for technical reasons.  your own political reasons to block
this new idea from realization is shining through a little too strongly.

|   They've decades of combined use to hone and perfect.  GNU script will
|   not have that.  Without TREMENDOUS incentives, nothing will change.
|   Can you imagine all dot files and config files and macro files and rc
|   files all being in one syntax?  This will never happen.  And if you try
|   to enforce it, it'll blow up in your face.  Straitjacketing won't win
|   you friends.

will _your_ straitjacketing win you more friends, Tom?  who the hell is
talking about "all dot files and config files and macro files and rc
files"?  you, Tom.  only in your nightmares does this come up as even a
relevant issue.  take your nightmares to your shrink, Tom.

|   In summary, I truly fear you're wasting a great deal of time attempting
|   to create something no one wants or needs badly enough to put up with.
|   In other words: it's not broken, so don't try to fix it.

why this "fear" for other people's time?  it's their lives, not yours.  if
you fear for their wasting their time, why do you so strongly work to make
it waste?  how do you _know_ that nobody wants it?  maybe that's just what
you're trying to make the people believe who are still likely to listen to
your ranting.  maybe that's a stronger political message than RMS's.  RMS
doesn't want GNU to use Tcl, so he goes on to make something he considers
better.  Tom Christiansen doesn't want GNU to go off making something RMS
considers better, so he tries to scare people away from it.  to be honest,
Tom, I think _you're_ broken and need fixing.

but it's good to see that defenders of the olden ways are so scared of the
new ideas that they go on such insane rampages.  it means that RMS is onto
something _real_ important this time.  thanks for confirming this, Tom.  I
also think so, but I couldn't quite express it as well as you do.  pity you
waste all that energy on yours on being afraid of other people's success.

#<Erik>
--
Microsoft is not the answer.  Microsoft is the question.  NO is the answer.