[cl-faq] Q: why doesn't Lisp have a Benevolent Dictator like

[Larry Clapp]

On 2006-01-30, Jean-François Brouillet wrote:
> I don't necessarily want to entertain a comp.lang,lisp like flame
> feast on this mailing list, but, even though Peter said he would
> somehow "tone it down", I'm not even sure this should make it to the
> FAQ.

Because people _A_sk it _F_requently?

I'll grant you that perhaps my particular answer, and even my
particular phrasing of the question, shouldn't make the FAQ, but I
think the question itself deserves a thoughtful, complete answer.

Even just asking the question implies a whole host of assumptions
about what makes a language, or a language implementation, thrive.
(Note that many people who bring up issues such as dictators (of any
strip) tend to conflate "language" with "language implementation".)

Some language communities *may* have benefitted from having a BDFL
and/or a single implementation, but a) one could easily debate this
point, and b) the Lisp "community" (TINLC) manifestly *does not* feel
that *it* would benefit from having a BDFL or throwing away all but
one implementation, or even *moving towards* a single implementation.

I think people that ask this question deserve a good answer to it,
which should include a discussion of why Lispers consider it
ill-founded and illustrative of false assumptions.

> In your Zen master analogy, one has to wonder *who* has his cup full
> of self-righteous knowledge about Lisp.

Well, I can see why you might say that.  :)  I *did* say "caricatures
follow", though.  I meant it.

  Caricature, noun: A representation, especially pictorial or
  literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or
  peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or
  grotesque effect.

I deliberately exaggerated the comments and complaints I've seen,
*after* saying "once you've heard these questions enough times, they
start to sound like this: <flame>", in an attempt not only to ask the
question, but also to show people who ask it *again* in comp.lang.lisp
why they get the answers they get.

-- Larry