Below. On Jan 20, 2012, at 5:52 PM, Reuben Thomas <r...@sc3d.org> wrote:
> I have just skimmed VPRI's 2011 report; lots of interesting stuff > there. The ironies of a working system that the rest of us can only > view in snapshot form grow ever-stronger: the constant references to > active documents are infuriating. The audience would like to see the > active document, but instead we only get a printout. It's as if, > waiting for a new film, we got only reviews of trailers rather than > the trailers themselves. > > The irony is then compounded by a code listing at the end of the > document (hint: a URL is shorter and actually useful; this is not the > 1980s). > > And then just when we thought it was going to end, the agony > continues: you've pushed the deadline back a year. > > I wish you all a joyful and productive 2012; unlike many projects, > it's clear that with this one the question is not whether what is > finally released will be worth the wait, it's whether it'll ever > actually be released. > > You do shoot yourselves in the foot at one point: "The Web should have > used HyperCard as its model, and the web designers made a terrible > mistake by not doing so." Yes, but the web shipped and revolutionised > the world; meanwhile, you lot have shipped stuff that, at best, like > Smalltalk, has inspired revolutions at one remove. Many of the lessons > of your work are decades old and still not widely learned. Contrast > with Steve Jobs, who spun an ounce of invention into a mile of > innovation, by combining a desire for better computing with the > understanding that without taking people with you, your ideas will die > with you. It's a shame and an embarrassment that to the world at large > he's the gold standard. > > Please, no more deadline extensions. Whatever you have by the end of > this year will unquestionably be worth releasing, for all its > imperfections. It's high time to stop inventing the future and start > investing it. > > -- > http://rrt.sc3d.org > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > fonc@vpri.org > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc Thanks for your passionate words. I hope you'll forgive my natural predisposition to supply a counter-argument. It turns out that I can barely help it, it's just my nature:) Here's a project where we have some people trying to do something that a lot of people have wanted to try, but haven't gotten around to. This is something which is in a sense completely new; yes, most of us work in several languages on a daily basis. But are these the right set of languages to get our work done most efficiently? Is there a better set? And: while artists in other fields were able to stand on the shoulders of giants, programmers, generally speaking (and this is my own feeling,) have to stand on a pile of dogshit. While we could criticize this work as shipping late, we might also note that most software projects ship both late and *over budget.* Here's a project, even a *research* project, that's shipping late strictly because in four years, these people were able to come in so far under budget as to buy themselves another year of invention. Tom West called it "pinball," you work your ass off, you do a good job, and if you're lucky, they let you do it again. One of the things he was famous for was "pinching his quarters," because the real game wasn't what he was doing then, it was about what he was doing *next.* West was banking everything he had to get a free ball. I'd like to express my unrepentant, unapologetic congratulations to *everyone* who was a part of making this unique, fantastic inquiry last a full year longer than we thought it would, and for involving the unwashed industrial masses (read: me) in the conversation. This continues to enrich my life and I'm damned happy to see it go on another year. Thank you. Excelsior! Casey Ransberger _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list fonc@vpri.org http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
