Re: Scheme acceptance [no flames]

[Leo Razoumov <lrazoumov@qualcomm.com>]

I heard, that FreeBSD folks on FreeBSD port project are very receptive to new
software. In fact they already provide binaries for almost every Scheme
implementation except for DrScheme. See it for yourself at: 
http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/lang.html

Of course, BSD is not as big as Linux but it is still a substantial community.

--Leo

>>>>> "SK" == Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk@cs.brown.edu> writes:

    SK> John R. Hall wrote:
    >> Wouldn't "The MzSchemer's Cookbook" be more appropriate? Otherwise
    >> people will expect it to work with Guile.
    >> (the other option would be to avoid MzScheme-specific constructs, which
    >> would be silly - MzScheme has some really nice stuff)

    SK> The notes are very distinctly going to be tied to PLT Scheme.
    SK> Otherwise you couldn't do anything cookbook-ish in Scheme, and the
    SK> notes would be useless.

    SK> Of course, we publish our interfaces, so it's not like Guile or others 
    SK> couldn't implement the same interfaces.  That's their call.

    >> A random, unrelated thought: MzScheme is not included with most Linux
    >> distributions (I think it's an optional package on one of the SuSE CD's,
    >> but that's about it). There is no reason for this - there are perfectly
    >> good RPM's, MzScheme is quite stable, and it is one of the best free
    >> Scheme implementations out there. 

    SK> We couldn't agree with you more.  That too when Linux's come with
    SK> barely-maintained Scheme's like UMB Scheme.  Worse, when someone
    SK> experiments with one of these, they are liable to come away with the
    SK> wrong impression about the language itself.  It'd be much nicer if
    SK> their first experience with Scheme was a friendly interface like
    SK> DrScheme instead.  If they wanted to, they could then step "out of the 
    SK> box" into MzScheme instead.

    >> Perhaps PLT could email the
    >> packagers-that-be at several of the major Linux distros?

    SK> We've tried, and finally grown tired of wasting our time esp with
    SK> unresponsive people like RedHat.

    SK> Brent Fulgham has kindly helped us get into the Debian loop in some
    SK> fashion -- I don't know if we're actually part of the distribution,
    SK> but at least we are registered with Debian.  Maybe Brent can elaborate
    SK> on that.

    >> I'd be happy to contribute Slackware packages for MzScheme. 

    SK> Would you be willing to *maintain* it?  That is, every time a new PLT
    SK> release is about to come out (we would inform you in advance), you
    SK> update your disk copy via CVS and create the package in time so it
    SK> will be on the Web along with our other distributions when we are
    SK> ready to announce the release?

    SK> If yes, that would be really TERRIFIC.  And volunteers for other
    SK> distributions would be equally welcome!

    >> If we want MzScheme to gain mindshare over Guile, it needs to get more
    >> widely distributed, and not just at universities.

    SK> Yep.  Really, it's not for lack of trying.  Perhaps we made a mistake
    SK> by approaching RedHat first, and got burned by the experience.

    SK> Shriram