Subject: Re: Is LISP dying? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 1999/07/22 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.forth Message-ID: <3141675096194126@naggum.no> * Michael Coughlin <m-coughlin@ne.mediaone.net> | The GNU C/C++ compiler is carefully designed to prove a political | opinion. Those who created it know that coprighting software and keeping | source code secret is an impediment to the use of computers. They turned | the practice of commercial software companies on its head. After many | years of work, these people are finally getting their point across. | Eventually we'll see the only software worth using comes with | unencumbered source code. yeah, and written in languages and sub-languages so hard to understand that it doesn't matter that the source is free, or written in special dialects that can only be compiled by the compiler itself, or written using so much magic that nobody dares touch it, however open it is. remember, if people are going to get paid to offer commercial support instead of for the product or the license to the product, they'll make sure you need the support and that the authors are the only people who can make any useful contributions. | And nobody has tried enough possibilities yet to find the ones that have | lasting value. why are you so sure abou this? it is in the best interest of people who desire users to make something _appear_ new, and if you need programmers to get excited about your new free software project, what better way to get them interested than to re-package some old stuff in maringally new ways that can't be used with the rest of the old stuff? take a good look at what the industry accepts as "invention" these days, and shudder. free software will not change this, it will only redirect the efforts to and the means of appearing new and attractive. the problem with all these fancy predictions about how new technology and a slight change in licensing terms will change the world is that they ignore the mediocre people and anyone out to make a quick buck. and the really the sad thing is that you don't allow mediocre people and quick bucks, you won't get the system booted. most of the hype about what will happen in the future of free software and free access to everything is based on the pipe dream that in the future, the stupid people have ceased to provide the bread and butter of a society, and only smart, idealistic people remain. but we still need people to farm the land, dig wells, keep all the electric wires and fibers operational, and take care of the refuse of human society, and they will want computers, too. as long as this mass market of non-programmers exists, there will be providers who think in terms of units sold. even with his shadowy soul and psychotic paranoid destructiveness, Bill Gates has at least got that part right. #:Erik -- @1999-07-22T00:37:33Z -- pi billion seconds since the turn of the century