Re: [MacPerl] Buses and Languages (What happens if...)

[Matthias Ulrich Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>]

John W Baxter <jwblist@olympus.net> writes:
>Fairly early in the life-cycle of Python (and before I knew of Python's
>existence), a question was asked:  "What happens if Guido is hit by a bus?"
>[...]
>Perl was once in a similar position with respect to Mr. Wall (and has moved
>beyond it, I think).

Not sure. In terms of programming effort, Perl certainly no longer depends
on Larry, but if he were to vanish, a civil war would break out on p5p within a
few weeks.

>So...in the context of MacPerl:
>   what happens if Matthias is hit by a bus?

Don't know; it's been about 15 years since I last was hit by one :-)

I think the software infrastructure won't be a problem; all of the sources
are available. The mailing list infrastructure is still ad personam at the
moment, but will be put on a more solid basis in the near future.

Regarding project leadership & release management, it looks as if Chris will
gradually expand his role there (focusing on tracking core perl).

This biggest vulnerability is in Macintosh specific development & library
support. Right now, the proverbial bus hit would probably mean a delay of at
least a year for MacPerl threading support (Since GUSI ][ is not yet far enough
to be completed by anybody else).

The best strategy for risk management might be a few "micro-Buses", i.e., for
me to consciously abstain from involving myself in some important new
developments so that somebody else is forced to get involved. Especially Tk
might be a promising candidate for this.

Matthias

-- 
Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
   "No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually
    suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk."
                          -- Terry Pratchett, _The Colour of Magic_


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