Comments/Manifesto

[Matthew Tuck]

First, I'd like to make an apology for anyone in the past, present or
future who gets offended by my style of writing.  If I at all seem
holier-than-thou, aloof or big-headed, bear in mind I don't intend to
be.  I try to write for all readers, not just who I'm writing to, and
for all future readers who are not yet with us as well (through the
message archive).

I apologise for any use of all-caps, overuse of the exclamation mark, or
any other emphasis.  I do know they're just my opinions (dogma as the
case may be), and your input IS _appreciated_!  =)

Secondly, bear in mind we need more members if we're going to get
anywhere, so anything you can do now to get people involved would be
great.  Due to exponential growth, one person now might mean ten in a
few years.  And let's snap people up now before some other project does.

So, if you have a web page to put a link on, can tell your friends about
us, have an idea for advertising us, or for getting more members, please
expend the effort to do so!

Thirdly, I want to include a brief manifesto for the project as I see it
.  If you don't like it by all means tell me, but I hope this will be
universally held.

Manifesto
=========

The fundamental driving force behind the Ultra project should be an
extension to language design of the principles of open source software.

That is to say, the language should be open to modification to anyone as
much as the compiler, being open-source itself, would be.  Let's have no
problem with people making little changes to the language even if it
means they are incompatible.  There are plenty of languages out there
designed to be used, let's be innovative, break the shackles of legacy
and let our language grow freely.

Does it really matter if we have multiple compilers, languages etc.? 
Experimentation is what makes open source software work so well.

Furthermore, let's make our ideas open.  To find information on a lot of
languages' rationales, you either have no chance, have to locate a book,
either borrowing from an (often obscure) library if you're lucky, or
paying money after locating it.

Let's ensure we have a complete message archive.  This includes the
stuff not normally in language rationales due to lack of space.

Let's ensure we have summaries of our work so far, so the whole archive
doesn't have to be read to understand what the project is about.

Let's ensure we have instructive essays, to get beginners up to speed in
language and compiler design, and newcomers up to speed on our project.

And finally, and most importantly, let's make sure it's all freely
available, and free in cost.

-- 
     Matthew Tuck - Software Developer & All-Round Nice Guy
                              ***
       Check out the Ultra programming language project!
              http://www.box.net.au/~matty/ultra/