TUNES website homepage draft

[Kyle Lahnakoski]

Brian Rice wrote:

> Please don't take this the wrong way, but I actually wrote that
> description with the *intent* of keeping hackers away who don't have
> a good knowledge of mathematics. ...

Skilled people are required, but skilled people with time on their hands
are few and far between.  They are either enjoying their current
position, or are being paid well enough that they don't care to change
things.  These people will not gravitate towards TUNES. 

If the community (as opposed to private funding) is going to build TUNES
then a lot of time investment is what TUNES needs.  Only the people with
time on their hands (in school or retired) are available to contribute. 
People with time on their hands are often looking for direction. The
TUNES site should be providing direction to receive their free time in
return. 


> This is a rant, because it's one of the most annoying and
> disempowering things about newbies that I have seen on the mailing
> list since it's inception (yes, I have looked at the mailing list's
> content for the last almost 7 years). This mailing list is not for
> learning those concepts (we simply don't have the bandwidth, plus
> many places on the net focus on such things), but TUNES core design
> simply requires them.

If TUNES is to be done, the web site, mailing lists, and IRC should be
dedicated to supporting people who have the time to build TUNES.  The
TUNES site must act as an educator; educating the bright-eyed people in
the ideas and concepts necessary for developing TUNES.  The TUNES site
must be a resource of essential information.  Right now the TUNES site
has a host of links to information that is mostly noise.  TUNES needs
these advanced concepts, but the web is too diluted to be effective.

The elders in the group should spend the little time they have on adding
and refining the web page to handle all the questions from the newbies. 
For example, the language review should pick apart each language,
showing essential aspects and providing EXAMPLES of the efficiencies
that can be gained.  I can not stress enough the need for examples.  A
good example acts as proof that an aspect is desirable. 

> TUNES has to be worked out with something beyond common sense,
> particularly not the sense of the modern programmer, as Tril's
> manifesto I believe makes clear. This is one of the more common
> misconceptions (or dare I say arrogances?) of average programmers to
> think that a knowledge of C and Perl (for example) and their use in
> any way constitutes the ability to hack TUNES by brute force.

The TUNES site should act as a friendly meeting place and educational
institution.  This type of environment will build a population large
enough to deal with the many small and boring tasks that lie ahead.  A
community project needs only one person with vision, a few good design
guys, and many hackers.  TUNES has the first two, but the environment is
not suited for supporting the third.

> Bottom line: if you don't grok a concept, Google: "intro category
> theory" or "intro arrow logic" or "intro type theory", or go buy a
> book on it.

... is a good example of maintaining an unattractive environment.




-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyle Lahnakoski                                  Arcavia Software Ltd.
(416) 892-7784                                 http://www.arcavia.com