[Haskell-cafe] who's in charge?

[Ketil Malde]

Günther Schmidt <gue.schmidt at web.de> writes:

> Basically that is my question: If there is someone at the top who has
> an eye on this. 

There isn't.  (Just like there isn't one in most situations, it's all
complex networks of interactions and nobody really in control. Get used
to it.)

> That essential libraries come about. 

What does "essential" mean?  Something a hypothetical dictator wants,
but nobody else?  For surely, if your email library was so essential,
it'd be included among the hundreds of libraries on Hackage?  Perhaps it
is a lot less important than you think?  (None of my programs need to
send email, so it's certainly not essential to me.)

Or perhaps sufficient functionality is in the libraries suggested by
Michael, and you just didn't find it when you looked?

> I am aware that Haskell is a project without industry backing 

This isn't exactly true, GHC is developed with support from Microsoft.

> so some things will have to happen a lot slower.

This isn't exactly true either, productivity seems only weakly
correlated to funding - at least, it is my experience that many of the
most productive people are programming as a hobby.

> I'm just wondering if there is someone who steers Haskell in that
> direction. 

No.

-k
-- 
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants