RE: scsh in PLT Scheme?

[Kirill Lisovsky <lisovsky@acm.org>]

Hello!

On Wed, 27 Mar 2002, Alex Peake wrote:

> Microsoft owns the desktop and .NET is where all their future investment is)
> and at least half of the world of server functionality (since Microsoft also
> owns more than half of that) (database, message queue, web services, email,
> ..).
Not quite.
Say, on DMBS market Microsoft's share is 15%.
http://www.crn.com/Sections/BreakingNews/BreakingNews.asp?ArticleID=26798

App. servers, MOM (message-oriented middleware), web servers are other
examples.

> Interoperability is the key for application developers (such as myself),
> especially since languages like Scheme cannot afford the investment that the
> Microsoft development community puts in to "components".

I'm developing PLT applications for (in alphabet order :-)) AIX, Linux and Windows.
Alas, some of this OS have not enough support from Microsoft development
community which effectively prevents development of portable Scheme applications
based on MS "components". And RS/6000 is not the only platform
supported by PLT and unsupported by Microsoft...

> .NET is where Microsoft is investing billions of dollars. Few can match the
> innovation coming from that. (COM still exists, and PLT rather nicely
> supports that, but it is not the future.)
Which makes .NET a very moving target, isn't it?
How long was the period of glory for COM?
Huge investments in short-living technologies is not easy pattern to
follow, I'm afraid... A few can match Microsoft here.

> Similarly Java is where Sun, IBM, Oracle and others are placing their (beat
> Microsoft) bets.
>
I've no numbers at hand concerning other big guns, but IBM have invested its $1B
in Linux last year.

> With that financial and creative might, that is where I put my bet on it
> being viable three years from now.
POSIX is already here.
So, it has to be supported first and .NET support may be scheduled 2005,
isn't it?
.NET and POSIX are not excluding each other after all.

> BTW, what is POSIX (in a modern desktop and server world)? ;)
POSIX is Linux, for example. And its share of webservers which is
hard to ignore :-)
I believe that you may be interested in the numbers at
http://www.webcraft.com/survey/

If you want it from Microsoft perspective:
"The Portable Operating System for UNIX (POSIX) subsystem is not
included with Windows XP. The POSIX subsystem has been replaced with a
more UNIX-like (but still POSIX) environment called Interix. Interix is a
superset of the original POSIX subsystem with more functionality. Interix is a
more complete UNIX environment."
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q308259

IMHO from pragmatic point of view interface to stable wide-supported standard
with a long life-time (POSIX) is more promising target than an attempt to support
latest "future technology" desperately keeping pace with its promoter (.NET).

Well, this is just my personal opinion. The primary goal of this message is to
provide some facts and links which may be interesting in context of
this discussion.

Best regards,
         Kirill.