On Mar 20, 2004, at 8:49 AM, Vasili Galchin wrote:

I'm not sure what you're presenting these names as examples of, but 
IMHO...

> Linus Torvalds

He's done good job maintaining the Linux kernel, but maybe wouldn't be 
that good of a compiler-writer (probably just lack of experience in 
that area), see e.g.:

http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-08/msg00544.html

The single lead developer model is a good development model, though.

> Eric Raymond ...

It's nice to have someone extroverted speak for you when you agree with 
him, but people who feel a need to insult those that don't agree with 
them (see http://www.catb.org/~esr/aim/ for a non-technical example) 
are probably not the most trustworthy community-builders...

If anything, the OCaml developers seem like one of the most reasonable 
groups of developers I've seen (not that I've actually seen any of them 
in person).  The core works well, and its development methods seem to 
be working.

As for the community/library side...planning on committees or on the 
lack thereof is probably premature.  Successful communities don't seem 
to organize by planning, but by accident.  Once there is sufficient 
weight behind the effort, that's when it should be evident what needs 
to be adjusted; nothing needs to be set in stone from the start.

Personally, I don't think becoming popular is important, or that 
something has failed if it doesn't.  Besides, OCaml actually already 
seems to be gaining quite a bit of attention.

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