Hello Andrei,
Walter Bright wrote:
John Reimer wrote:
Putting it bluntly, that's also the exact attitude that will
distance people from the language. Show disdain for them, and you
are guaranteed to alienate people no matter how strong your argument
is. That, and such disdain is usually not warranted because it is
reactive to a shallow response and fails to recognize the deeper
social issues hinted by such a response.
Back in the early DOS days, there was a lot of disdain for the
platform. "Real" programmers used unix workstations, not toy 16 bit
PCs. It turned out, though, that most of the fortunes were made
programming for DOS, and eventually those programs and programmers
migrated to 32 bits and brought the industry with it. DOS was the
"gateway" programming platform.
Yah but due to other factors than its technical qualities. Leaving
those out of the story puts things in an odd light.
Andrei
He he... that's one reason the polarization effect remains so intact. Our
point of view tends to hold a lot of sway on our interpretation of events.
:) I understood what Walter was getting at, though.... just that the disdain
really didn't accomplish anything.
If I allowed myself, I could easily be caught up in discussing why the popularity
of DOS was one of the greatest handicaps of the era... but such an opinion
is bound to clash with those those that made their living from it (Hi, Walter
:D ) Granted, my point of view, would have been from the perspective of the
consumer... and one who, as a teenager, had no investment in it commercially.
However, the motivation behind Linux development and use was probably hugely
influenced by the industries' rigid hold on DOS 16-bit.... so we probably
have DOS (and win 3.1, win 95/98) to thank for Linux's growing popularity.
It seems that influencing an industry to steer it in any one direction is
usually impossible except by the corporations most involved. This is one
area where Linux (and opensource in general) has been so effective because
it forced the industry giants to maneuver away from their intended path.
I don't think Linux would be what it was without the effects of the commercial
side of things... nor would commercial OSes be what they are without open
source being a competitive element. So I've come to appreciate the influence
of both, even though I don't particularly care for some of the elements of
either.
I don't support the idea of D on .NET because I think it's the best thing
around... I do so because I think it has a place in the grand scheme of things,
something that D might do well to be part of. :)
-JJR
