Lisp NYC: If you're tired of waiting for Paul Graham to release Arc(groups.google.com)
groups.google.com
Lisp NYC: If you're tired of waiting for Paul Graham to release Arc
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_thread/thread/e2764cbec47cbe57/5c597b31df6be557#5c597b31df6be557
2 comments
I'd rather wait five years than use something mediocre.
The real tiger can never compete with the paper one. Facebook and Flickr use PHP; MySpace uses ColdFusion and/or ASP.NET; doing it NOW with crappy tools is scrappy, the start-up way. Start-ups don't wait for the stars to align.
I need to be more careful with my words. Clarification #2: I'll wait patiently until Arc is ready, instead of complaining about how long it's taking. To complain will just encourage mediocre design. It's great that two smart people can really take their time on something and make it excellent, rather than push something when it's not ready. It's the opposite of the start-up way, and that will inherently produce higher quality results. The aim of a startup isn't perfect quality, but rather better quality than the #1 competitor.
That does not have any correlation with whether or not I'm waiting to do my startup. I'm launching a site on Friday using Rails.
That does not have any correlation with whether or not I'm waiting to do my startup. I'm launching a site on Friday using Rails.
PG has to have read 'worse is better'. I wonder what his motivations are for going against 'release early, release often'? Perhaps it's a case of people's expectations being pretty high, and ready to pounce if it's not perfect, which it probably isn't, given that it hasn't been shaken down that much (or at least not by a wide audience).
It's hard to know yet whether it's mediocre, though, eh? Perry Metzger is a smart guy, so I'll wait and see.
I haven't met Metzger, but he certainly has the right attitude about this; here's what he posted to the Lisp NYC mailing list last night:
BTW, for those of you attending: remember, tomatoes for throwing work best if you leave them to rot in the hot sun for a day in advance.
BTW, for those of you attending: remember, tomatoes for throwing work best if you leave them to rot in the hot sun for a day in advance.
Ah...a HURD user.
What a suckup!
Clarification: I'd rather Paul and RTM spent the time to make Arc excellent than release it as mediocre. The title implies that it's a fault that it's taking so long. It's a virtue.
It's not so much a virtue of Arc that's it's taking long as a virtue of Lisp that it can survive for so long without a good implementation.
Is this an instance of the Graham-Tiedemann Law?