On Dec 16, 2005, at 1:16 PM, Peter Seibel wrote: > On Dec 16, 2005, at 8:35 AM, Marco Antoniotti wrote: > >> >> On Dec 16, 2005, at 11:18 AM, David Newton wrote: >>>> >>>> >>> I guess I don't really think the standard is the issue anyway, at >>> least >>> not for me. The primary issues for me aren't language issues but >>> implementation issues, topped by threading, cross-implementation >>> library >>> installation, and environment setup. >>> >>> Being a developer and not a system administrator, I feel pretty >>> strongly >>> that I shouldn't have to fight a battle every time I want to set up a >>> Lisp web application development environment, worry about whether or >>> not >>> threads are supported, figure out how to install all the libraries I >>> need every time, or rediscover how to integrate my platform's >>> windowing >>> system into the standalone application I'm developing. >> >> But that is exactly what standards are for. And in the CL world you >> need to take into account several implementors commercial and not. > > That's true. But there's a big difference, between little "s" > standards (probably de facto) and "The Standard", i.e. the ANSI > Standard. As I'm sure you know. My point is that if we want to > encourage the emergence of standards for anything it needs to be an > organic process--get implementations to converge on doing the same > thing in the same way and *then* say, let's write up what we all have > already agreed upon and call it the FOO Standard. That the Common > Lisp standard worked at all is, I believe, a consequence that almost > all of it was the codification of existing practice.
I wholehearthedly agree. But, from personal experience, and lack of time, it ain't easy. Cheers -- Marco Antoniotti http://bioinformatics.nyu.edu/~marcoxa NYU Courant Bioinformatics Group tel. +1 - 212 - 998 3488 715 Broadway 10th FL fax. +1 - 212 - 998 3484 New York, NY, 10003, U.S.A. _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
