[erlang-questions] Was Re: Bug ?! now Erlang comment (LONG LONG)

[Dominic Williams]

Michael wrote:

> How about forking the language and redesigning it to fix
> the problems?

I think forking the language would be a mistake:

 - It would be a pity to split the community and expend
   energy in different directions

 - It might not even result in a better language (evolution
   often gets better results than revolution)

However, I do find that backward compatibility is too often
offered as a reason not to make some changes, particularly
of the kind that correct past mistakes. As a result, Erlang
is growing, but not cleaned up.

I think the solution is to offer, along with the changes,
refactoring tools to bring existing code up to date.

Regards,

Dominic Williams
http://www.dominicwilliams.net

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