RE: Scheme Programming Reference

Subject: RE: Scheme Programming Reference
From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 20:03:28 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, Frank A. Christoph wrote:

> > I find it enormously enlightening, when someone suggests a method of
> > making dsssl more accessible, that there is a strong preference towards
> > a more scholarly (if well done) computer-science oriented book.  The
> > demonstrated lack of understanding of the *publishing* audience that
> > dsssl is *supposed* to serve makes it quite clear why dsssl is now and
> > will remain a guarded toy of elites.
> 
> This is an amusing indictment of DSSSL since it is exactly the same argument
> being leveled against XSL by web designers who want everything served up on
> a silver platter.
> 
> My opinion is that there is no free lunch. If you want your computer to do
> sophisticated things for you, then you have two choices. First, you can pay
> Microsoft a wad of money to try to figure out one-gazillionth of all the
> different possibilities of what you might want to do, and then create a
> fancy GUI to slap onto it. Second, you can become a programmer and think for
> yourself. (Or convince yourself that you are free-thinking, until you
> realize that you're using Microsoft Visual Studio...)

I am an active part of another volunteer group (FreeBSD), where we keep
on echoing different forms of "there is no free lunch".  That's because
we're programming for US, and we don't have to bend to user whims if
those whims do not suit us.

DSSSL is *NOT* a volunteer effort, it's a standard that you want the
general public (or at least writers) to accept.  If you embrace that
same sentiment here, then you will never produce a standard that will be
accepted.  You better be willing to be the only users.  At FreeBSD, we
have a small user base that grows only slowly, but we are satisfied that
it is so.

You had better be satisfied with the current status-quo, if you embrace
that "there is no free lunch" philosophy.


----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Chuck Robey                 | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
chuckr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx       | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1  |
Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run picnic and jaunt, both FreeBSD-current.
(301) 220-2114              | 
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