On 16 Aug 2005, at 23:54, Erik Sandberg wrote:
On Tuesday 16 August 2005 22.54, Hans Aberg wrote:
But TeX was developed once, too. Its author got tired, putting the
lid on further development, having the copyright. It could happen
with LilyPond, too, if one arrives the point where one has the
reached limits of the current setup.
This is not true, both Lily and TeX is free software. Anyone can
take up
development whenever the original developers get tired.
Yes, with TeX, that is the problem, everyone making their own
successor version. It means that there is no successor that people in
general are willing to shift to. The original TeX was developed by
initiative from AMS (American Mathematical Society), and there is no
such initiative now, holding it together.
In the context of LilyPond, the community would benefit from holding
together in development.
One should note that most programming languages have a natural life
cycle. First, a creative, experimenting period. Then, if the language
should not become merely a curiosity, there needs to be a formalized
standard, as reliability for more serious work. That is usually the
path to its demise, as it cannot develop as quickly as before.
LilyPond is probably at the first stage.
But one should not worry too much about it. A few years ago, there
was an article about "Bison being extinct". But now, new initiatives
have been made, and Bison alive and well.
Hans Aberg
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