[clean-list] Re: Clean and the Open-Source community

[Brian Rogoff]

Arjen writes:
> 
> This isn't about Windows or Linux or any other operating system.
> It's just that nobody has ported Clean's dynamic linker and dynamic I/O 
> run-time system to other platforms, yet.
> As to "why nobody has done this yet"? I don't know.
> 
> 	Arjen

The answer is obvious: Unix support isn't a priority of the Clean
implementors. Given that, few Unix/Linux programmer are likely to invest 
effort in writing enough Clean and getting familiar enough with the 
internals to make the effort. There is a high activation energy for Unix 
users to get involved, and relatively low energy to use less clean ;-) 
langauges/implementations like OCaml, various Schemes, SMLs, and Haskells. 

I think the decision to focus on Windows was a strategic mistake from the
standpoint of leveraging open source activity, but that decision rests with
the implementors. Who knows, maybe in a few years everything will change
and the decision to focus on Windows will seem farsighted?

-- 
-- Brian