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From: rjw9917@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert Willard)
Subject: Re: GNU Extension Language Plans
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Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 23:38:49 GMT
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John Ousterhout (ouster@tcl.eng.sun.com) wrote:
: (sigh... here we go again)

: I'd like to respond to an error in Richard Stallman's latest posting.
: Stallman said:

:     Sun recently announced a campaign to "make Tcl the universal
:     scripting language."  This is a campaign to convince all the
:     developers who *don't* prefer Tcl that they really have no choice.
:     The idea is that each one of us will believe that Sun will inevitably
:     convince everyone else to use Tcl, and each of us will feel compelled
:     to follow where we believe the rest are going.

: Please understand that this "campaign" exists only in Stallman's mind.
: As far as I know there has never been *any* official Sun announcement
: about Tcl.  There is no campaign at Sun to stamp out Tcl competitors;
: Tcl and Tk aren't even official Sun products right now, nor has Sun
: made a commitment to turn them into products (yet).  If anyone has
: concrete evidence to back up Stallman's accusations, please post it
: so we can all see it.

: The only information I recall from Sun about Tcl is a couple of job
: listings and one or two personal messages from me, which were intended
: to keep the Tcl community informed about what my group is doing and
: to solicit input.  I believe that these messages were posted on
: comp.lang.tcl only;  if the goal had been to browbeat people who dislike
: Tcl, the messages would have been posted where Tcl haters would see them.

: Of course, I hope that someday Tcl and Tk will become Sun products (and
: also products at many other companies), but I think that this will
: *increase* the alternatives available to people, not decrease them.
: I also hope that Tcl and Tk will become a universal scripting language
: for the Internet, but I hope to do this by making Tcl and Tk so attractive
: that people *want* to use them, not by somehow preventing people from
: using alternatives.  I don't see how such a negative campaign could work
: anyhow.

: If there has been a negative campaign, I daresay it has come from
: Stallman.  After all, who posted a message that used half-truths to
: try to convince people not to use a particular system, without even
: providing a viable alternative?

: Fortunately,  I found the rest of Stallman's message, where he began
: the process of designing a new scripting language, more encouraging.
: I just hope that he and those who work with him can focus on the
: positive process of developing what they think is a better scripting
: language, rather than a negative process of accusation and
: misinformation.

: The saddest thing about all of this is that the UNIX community
: continues to bicker about silly details such as whether a programming
: system can be considered to have linked lists if it doesn't have a
: garbage collector too, while Microsoft steadily increases its market
: share and makes us irrelevant.  If you're looking for a company that
: really knows how to squash its competition, you should look farther
: north.

With all due respect (and IMHO much is due to both parties involved), I
would suggest that such discussions be moved to a new newsgroup.  Perhaps
comp.lang.politics would be appropriate.
 

