Re: Libraries and repositories

[Paul Graham <address@hidden>]

Much as I would want to agree with an argument that praises
Scheme and disses Java, I suspect that the real problem is
that Scheme is (currently) ruled by a committee and Java
isn't.  If the Scheme committee got together and blessed a
huge collection of libraries as an official part of the 
next version of the language, they would soon come included
with anything that dared to call itself Scheme.  They're
not likely to, though; look how long they dithered about
macros, and what they ended up with.

The wind has shifted.  Languages have more in them, and change
faster, than you can do with a committee.

--- Tony Kimball <alk@pobox.com> wrote:
> Quoth Paul Prescod on Wednesday, 19 December:
> : Tony Kimball wrote:
> : > Really, Perl is a wonderful example of why Sun was right to hold
> Java
> : > so tightly.  There can be only one.  Wall's syntax was ugly
> enough so
> : > that no one wanted to reverse engineer it.  This was a *good
> thing*
> : > for the success of Perl, which today is driven largely by CPAN.
> : 
> : I don't really see the relationship. CPAN is wonderful but it has
> : nothing to do with Larry Wall holding on tightly to Perl's syntax.
> Perl
> : is not tightly held and it has CPAN. Java is tightly held and does
> NOT
> : have CPAN. What's your point?
> 
> The analogy is clear and simple to my perception:
> 
> Wall's language is practically irreproducible.  As a result, it
> represents a single unified target platform.  As a result, it is
> feasible to assemble a large library of utilities and systems built
> on top of that platform.
> 
> Gosling's language is practically irreproducible.  As a result, it
> represents a single unified target platform.  As a result, it is
> feasible to assemble a large library of utilities and systems built
> on top of that platform.
> 
> Contrast Scheme:
> 
> The language is trivially reproducible.  As a result, it represents a
> vast array of divergent platforms.  As a result it is infeasible to
> assemble a large library of utilities and systems built on top of
> that
> platform.
> 
> I oversimplify, for clarity and brevity.
> 
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of
your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com
or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com