[Haskell-cafe] The Lisp Curse

[Daniel Peebles]

The way I understand it, you're saying not that we shouldn't be doing it
this way (since it isn't centrally managed, it's the only possible way), but
that we shouldn't be "bragging" (for lack of a better word) that we have
lots of libraries that do a specific thing. Or if not that, then at least
that it isn't a clear win.

I agree that from an end-user's perspective it isn't always a clear win, but
I do think that having a bunch of libraries (even ones that do the same
thing) an indicator of a healthy, active, and enthusiastic community. Sure,
it's decentralized and people will often duplicate effort, but different
variations on the same idea can also help explore the design space and will
reveal to everyone interested what works and what doesn't.

But yeah, if you want to do X and you encounter 15 libraries that do X and
can't find a clear consensus on what's best, I can understand why that might
be frustrating. I don't think there's really a clear solution to that
though, other than gently encouraging collaboration and scoping out of
existing work before starting new work. But people generally hate working
with other people's code, so I doubt that'll have much of an effect :)

Dan

On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 4:56 PM, Andrew Coppin
<andrewcoppin at btinternet.com>wrote:

> On 19/05/2011 09:34 PM, vagif.verdi at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> Andrew, you are being non constructive.
>>
>
> It seems I'm being misunderstood.
>
> Some people seem to hold the opinion that more libraries = better. I'm
> trying to voice the opinion that there is such a thing as too many
> libraries. The article I linked to explains part of why this is the case, in
> a better way than I've been able to phrase it myself.
>
> I'm not trying to say "OMG, the way it is now completely sucks!" I'm not
> trying to say "you must do X right now!" I'm just trying to put forward an
> opinion. The opinion that having too many libraries can be a problem, which
> some people don't seem to agree with. (Obviously it isn't *always* bad, I'm
> just saying that sometimes it can be.)
>
> That's all I was trying to say.
>
>
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