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From: Russ McManus <mcmanr@nytrdc058.eq.gs.com>
Subject: Re: Why no talk about Guile?
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Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 18:09:55 GMT


Richard Coleman <coleman@math.gatech.edu> writes:

> 
> I find it funny that with the release of
> Guile 1.0, I've heard almost no mention of it
> here, or on Gnu newsgroups.
> 
> I thought Guile was supposed to be a fairly
> fundamental part of the FSF's plans for GNU.
> So I expected it to have a high profile (which
> would probably be good for the lisp/scheme
> community).
> 
> But I never hear anyone mention it... what's
> the scoop on that?

i have no direct relationship with the gnu project,
but i have spent a good deal of time working with
guile and scheme in general, and i am willing to
share my opinion.

i think that many schemers are research oriented and
are not looking for the (hopefully well designed) 
'kitchen sink' programming environment that guile 
hopes to provide, particulary when that environment 
is not designed as a platform for programming language 
research.

some well known scheme implementations were designed 
to support research on programming languages. in
comparison guile has a greater emphasis on practicality, 
and it makes life difficult for someone who wants to
muck around with internal stuff.

this difference in world views was well illustrated by
the extended debates about #f/'() equality with regard
to support for automatic translation of elisp to scheme.

many schemers expressed frustration that the gnu
folks were willing to consider breaking the scheme 
standard in order to 'make things work'.  (please do
not rehash this debate-- i am trying to make a point 
about value systems, not software systems)

i am quite enthusiastic about the prospects for guile,
personally, and i have been using it successfully,
primarily as an extension language.

-russ

-- 
Russell D. McManus             phone: 212-357-4901
Goldman, Sachs & Co.            beep: 917-556-0708
Intl. Equities Technology
