Re: Slot allocations

[Jamison Hope]

On Sat, April 16, 2011 7:59 pm, Per Bothner wrote:
> There are 3 Kawa submissions.  I think they're all worthwhile, so if by
> some
> miracle Kawa were to get 3 slots, we could use them.
>
> If Kawa were to get 2 slots, my inclination would be to drop "Kawa -
> REPL Web console"
> and pick "Kawa - Full Contunuations" and "Kawa - REPL improvements and
> pretty printing".

Agreed. "Kawa - REPL Web console" is the weakest proposal of the three.

> If we only get one slot, the choice is harder.  Clearly "Kawa - Full
> Continuations"
> is a more visible and important project in that it could enable a
> complete and
> compatible implementation of Scheme, and there are a number of people
> who would be
> really happy to have continuations.  On the other hand, Simon (Full
> Continuations)
> has been fairly quiet, while Charles (REPL improvements and pretty
> printing)
> has been very proactive: He's already submitting decent patches, asking
> good questions
> on the Kawa mailing list, and contributing in a positive manner.  My
> inclination
> would be to reward that energy and enthusiasm.  Jamison - what do you
> think?

I think you're right. All things being equal, I would rather see the
continuations
work done, as I am very interested in seeing Kawa become a fully compliant
Scheme implementation. It could also lead to improvements in TCO and other
low-level compiler stuff that would benefit everyone even if they weren't
directly using call/cc. We haven't heard much from Simon, though (at least
on the Kawa list).

On the other hand, Charles has already started to dig into the Kawa sources
and seems very eager to get involved, and I do think that we should encourage
him. His project may be a bit more modest, but he has shown a willingness
to contribute and strikes me as the more likely of the two to continue to
do so
after the summer is over.

I don't mean to denigrate Simon, of course, because for all I know, he
might be quiet because he's off reading the literature and becoming a CPS
expert. So ideally we would like to give slots to both of them. But if it
has to
be one or the other, let's see what Charles can do.

> --
>       --Per Bothner
> address@hidden   http://per.bothner.com/
>

--
Jamison Hope
The PTR Group
www.theptrgroup.com