Re: Interesting developments since "Beating the averages"?

joswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Tin Gherdanarra schrieb:


Lisp does not need a 'benevolent dictator'. You may need one. 

This is a catchy sound-bite on my expense, but it misses
the point.

But then you can always join the Python community. 

You sound like a German redneck before 1989 telling
student protesters and "commies" to emigrate to the
GDR if they don't like it here. The python community
is where I'm from. Lisp has its virtues over python,
but there is no such thing as a "batteries included" for
Lisp, and most people here agree that this is a bad thing,
at least hampering wide-spread acceptance of the language.

I attribute this to the fact that there is no maintainer
of a single implementation (as with perl) who integrates
contributions into a distribution. The result is a
twisted little maze of little Lisps and slightly incompatible
wheels, as with Unix ca 1990. "Batteries included",
a default set of modules, is a strong incentive to adopt
the language. If you agree that Lisp is undervalued, than
you might or might not agree that fragmentation is the
problem and a central figure would have alleviated this.
Just stating that "Lisp does not need 'benevolent dictator'
is not gonna cut it. Why do you think that?





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