On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 5:05 PM, Richard Hainsworth <rich...@rusrating.ru> wrote:

> It is blindingly obvious that the majority of language users, ..., will only 
> start to use a language
> when it is recommended by 'those in authority'...
>
> I think the issue of a version number is irrelevant

1) You have more or less contradicted yourself. If we agree that Larry
Wall is an authority, for example, it is reasonable to wait until he
says that the Perl 6 spec is ready, and many will also wait until
Rakudo claims to mostly comply with the Perl 6 spec.

2) Version number may not be relevant to you, but it is relevant to
others. Therefore, it is relevant to the adoption of Perl 6.


>, given the vested
> interest of the developer to assign a number that will attract users,

That has not been my experience with FOSS projects. Rather, I think
developers shy away from ever saying 1.0. For example, the JED editor
has been around for a long time, but its version number is 0.99-19.
The Enlightenment window manager too 10 years before they were
comfortable saying "1.0". This "fear of 1.0" was even the subject of a
paragraph in Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and The Bazaar.


> to such an extent that there is rule of thumb never to use the first release,
> but to wait until the version 'has matured'.

I've heard this in the Windows world, but I think the FOSS world
version numbers tend to be lower. For example, I remember that
Netscape 5.0 was equivalent to Mozilla 1.0.


> Even if the developers of "Rakudo" release a V1.0, would that in itself lead
> to the acceptance of Perl6. I doubt it.

Necessary but not sufficient condition?


> A great deal that is needed to demonstrate the stability and strength of
> Perl6 for 'production' purposes has been included in the design from the
> very beginning, namely, a MASSIVE test suite.

How many people, not involved in Perl 6, know that? See the point? I
bet that you don't follow the development process of every single
software package you use. For any given software package, 99.99% of
users do not follow the developers list of look through the test
suite.


Daniel.
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