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Re: proposal to fork the build-tools projects


From: Thien-Thi Nguyen
Subject: Re: proposal to fork the build-tools projects
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 12:35:19 -0700

   From: Dan Kegel <address@hidden>
   Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 10:51:51 -0700

   You think the world is ready for Guile?

guile is not ready for the world.  current install practice spews .la
and .so files all over $libdir and uses an internal "bugfixed" copy of
libltdl (if my reading of the cvs commit logs is accurate).  this is in
the grand solipsistic tradition of guile development, which bletcherous
nature (at present) is addressed by the OP's analysis.  probably other
projects suffer from similar manglement, which is why the analysis is
relevant.  that discussion does not continue is not surprising given
that most programmers w/ available cycles to burn have difficulty
smashing their ego in the name of Quality.

although my response was another way of pointing this out, i think that
regardless of human predilections the rise of software accountability,
as implemented by OP's change proposal or otherwise, is inevitable.
source code is just artifact, bits on a hard drive, a sentence w/o
context.  if you trust the speaker, fine.  if you don't, where does that
leave you?  i'll tell you: in the same boat as those who trust their
pensions to another whose methods are not known, in the same boat as
those who trust their rights to another whose methods are not known, and
so on.  the suffering of people through ignorance is historic.

knowing the method of software production is one way (perhaps the only
way) of building trust in it.  towards this, the auto* and like-minded
tools should strive, and in doing so, help the people using those tools
find courage in improving themselves and society at large.

   Can I have some of what you're smoking, please? :-)

i ran out a while back, sorry.

thi




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