Re: bytecode unification for scripting languages

[Jeffrey Stephens <jsteve17@tampabay.rr.com>]

On Wed, 01 Aug 2001, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:

> 
> I'll withhold my opinion on the amount of innovation in many of those
> projects.  Your comment on PLT Scheme is rather misleading.  While
> several people do very helpfully contribute bug reports and patches,
> the ratio of development done globally as opposed to in a small number
> of centers with high communication is virtually zero.  If PLT Scheme
> were to come with a totally different license, it might affect our
> user base, but I doubt it would affect the "innovation".  That
> innovation came not from a Open Source bazaar but from motivated grad
> students working for a terrific advisor.  I think simply labeling it
> an "Open Source" project, and pointing to it as an example of
> innovation, is extremely misleading.

This comment is very interesting.  Years ago I remember reading a book by Ayn
Rand titled 'Atlas Shrugged'.  The theme of this work is that there are
a relatively few key innovators/producers/movers-and-shakers in the world in
every discipline, and if these individuals were somehow removed things would
fall apart.  This is precisely what happens in the book.  The hero, John Galt,
convinces a number of these people to "retire" early, and the machinery of
production grinds to a halt.  It makes one wonder what would happen to Scheme
or other projects if something similar happened.  Would Scheme wither on the
vine?  Just a thought.

Regards,
Jeff Stephens