Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
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From: "Eric Jeschke" <jeschke@cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Demise of Scheme (was Re: pair? AND list?)
Message-ID: <199512061423.JAA03604@piano.cs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
References: <48p0td$pqf@netnews.nctu.edu.tw> <xy7zqdrcf2j.fsf@sans06.nada.kth.se> 	<48qs6e$s2j@boogie.cs.utexas.edu> <48sevn$1p64@serra.unipi.it> 	<48t1to$u5@jive.cs.utexas.edu> 	<staerk-2911951443120001@math-mac-staerk.stanford.edu> 	<SHRIRAM.95Nov29215807@europa.cs.rice.edu> 	<BLUME.95Nov30102933@zayin.cs.princeton.edu> 	<199512041628.LAA23748@piano.cs.indiana.edu> <BLUME.95Dec4121426@zayin.cs.princeton.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 09:23:08 -0500 (EST)
Lines: 42

blume@zayin.cs.princeton.edu (Matthias Blume) writes:

:In article <199512041628.LAA23748@piano.cs.indiana.edu> "Eric Jeschke" <jeschke@cs.indiana.edu> writes:

:   [ ... ]  Nevertheless, I hold out hope for Scheme,
:   primarily because it is so clean and small it has a better chance of
:   hanging on and evolving.

:Clean?  I beg to differ.  I can give you a dozen or so things that IMO
                                          ^^^^^^^^
:badly need to be cleaned up.  (But instead of doing so we argue about
:what we should call a function that nobody uses anyway.)

It's a relative matter, I'm sure.  Small and clean compared to a great
number of other languages.  What are your dirty dozen?

:   It almost certainly will as a PL research vehicle.

:I don't know about that either.  For example, at the current state of
:affairs SML appears to be the much better choice of a research vehicle.

Why?

:   The best bet is for a stable multi-platform release with good OS
:   and networking interfaces.   How about a "Scheme Consortium" release
:   (modeled after the X consortium)?

:Oh no!  Better keep a good remembrance of the deceased (and move on).

:-)

There are many things to dislike about X, but the X consortium managed
to put out a common release for multiple Unix vendors for years.  Why
couldn't a Scheme consortium do this as well, and toss in the Windows
and Mac platforms as well?

This might be completely unrealistic, given the petty arguments you
noted.  

-- 
Eric Jeschke
jeschke@cs.indiana.edu
