RE: Scheme Programming Reference

["Frank A. Christoph" <christo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 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.

Yes, that is one of the things I always liked about FreeBSD. (But I switched
to Linux anyway out of pure peer pressure. :)

> 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.

I spoke only for myself. I'm quite sure that many, if not most, of the
people on this list disagree with most of what I said.

I don't feel that DSSSL is aimed at _writers_ at all. I think it's aimed
first and foremost at the SGML community. I think the niche that it has
found is that subset which does print typesetting, mostly as consultation
work. I think the exceptions are mostly people who use Jade with DocBook
almost exclusively, and those people are not really interested in DSSSL at
all, but rather in some means of formatting DocBook.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to defend or advocate DSSSL or SGML, only to rebel
against the incessant whining and hand-holding that pervades the DSSSL
world. :)

--FC


 DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist