[Ocaml-biz] The strategic future of OCaml for 2..4 years

[Brian Hurt]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> A reminder as to topics and goals here.  This is the OCaml *BIZ* mailing
> list.  That means commercial strategies, not just accepting the OCaml
> open source community as it stands today.

Yep.  And there is a hell of a lot of business depending upon and using 
open source.  Microsoft doesn't have a lock on business software.



> 
> > As a side note, comming into a new culture and then telling
> > everyone that
> > they're doing everything wrong, and that they don't
> > understand anything,
> > is not likely to win friends or influence people.  Englishmen
> > who come
> > over here and yell at us for driving on the wrong side of the
> > road are
> > laughed at, at best.  More likely just ignored.
> 
> So what?  This isn't a popularity contest, this is about finding the
> people who actually see what's wrong with the culture so that it can
> change.  

To do that successfully, you also have to understand what's right with the 
culture, and why things are done the way they are.

> No 'biz' mailing list existed previously to someone like me
> coming along and stating the need for such a thing.  

You the first person to say this to the Ocaml crowd.  And about the ten 
billionth person to say it to the Linux crowd.

> Here is managerial
> theory on that subject, if you're inclined to understand the meme in
> broader terms:
> http://www.teams.org.uk/shaper.htm
> 
> Bill Gates pisses *lots* of people off.  Go to school on that.

So does Sadam Hussein.  Go to school on that.

> 
> The people who don't piss anybody off are called something else.
> http://www.teams.org.uk/coordina.htm
> http://www.teams.org.uk/tworker.htm
> 
> > A command economy sounds exactly like what you're demanding.
> 
> 'Demanding'.  This can devole into a boring discussion quickly, if you
> like.  I am not 'demanding'.  I am instigating, cajoling, suggesting.

Requesting.  Proposing.  Whatever.  The problem isn't with what you're 
doing, it's with what you want.

> > Certain, calling people names like 'flakes' is not a way to
> > win friends and influence people.
> 
> But it's all true.  Everyone running around doing their own thing, on
> their own whim, is exactly the description of flakes.  

Then you and I live in a nation of flakes.  Because that's my definition 
of a free culture- including a free market.

And I'm not just making this analogy to score points off of you.  Quite 
the contrary- I'm trying to draw parallels to something (I hope) you 
already understand.  You have emergent properties- the system as a whole 
is more intelligent than any members of the system are.  Capitialism beat 
the more unified but less intelligent Communism because it takes advantage 
of these emergent properties.  

> Again I ask: what is catnip for the herd of cats?

Do something cool.  Do it in Ocaml.

-- 
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of
mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."
                                - Gene Spafford 
Brian