4 ms·

Here are some other projects that benefited from BDFLs in my opinion: * Keras * Ruby * Clojure * Zig * OCaml * Vim * Elixir I think all of these have en

Here are some other projects that benefited from BDFLs in my opinion: * Keras * Ruby * Clojure * Zig * OCaml * Vim * Elixir I think all of these have ended up being unusually coherent. I may not agree with their design philosophy, but there clearly is one.

dgb23 2y ago
A perhaps important clarification: Many of those, including Linux as far as I know, simply started as projects that were driven by single authors with a strong vision and remarkable diligence. Then people flocked to those projects, but with the understanding and appreciation of that vision. I don’t think any of them wanted to be BDFLs for the sake of power. They were the original authors and _made_ something useful. I don’t think any of them took over an existing project and declared themselves dictators. Ironically they all would be way too opinionated to do so.
dash2 2y ago
Conversely, projects without clear leadership include rust (recently) and R, and I think they suffer for it. A very widespread system for organising people is to have a single responsible decision-maker, supported, monitored and advised by a committee. We see that through politics and business, and a lot of the best open source projects seem to do the same thing.
- gpderetta 2y ago
  IMO C++ would have benefitted from having a BDFL for a bit longer as well.
kovac 2y ago
Linux, OpenBSD? Perhaps to an extent Mutt too.
giraffe_lady 2y ago
But php, one of the most notoriously chaotic mainstream languages, has a bdfl. And lua, arguably more disciplined than all of the ones you listed, has not.
- hermanradtke 2y ago
  Rasmus is not the BFDL for PHP.
- chuckadams 2y ago
  PHP is governed by an RFC process requiring a 2/3 majority vote of a couple dozen core devs. This has been the case for nearly 20 years now. Rasmus rarely even votes these days.

4 ms·

Here are some other projects that benefited from BDFLs in my opinion: * Keras * Ruby * Clojure * Zig * OCaml * Vim * Elixir I think all of these have en

by SatvikBeri 2y ago

dgb23 2y ago
A perhaps important clarification: Many of those, including Linux as far as I know, simply started as projects that were driven by single authors with a strong vision and remarkable diligence. Then people flocked to those projects, but with the understanding and appreciation of that vision. I don’t think any of them wanted to be BDFLs for the sake of power. They were the original authors and _made_ something useful. I don’t think any of them took over an existing project and declared themselves dictators. Ironically they all would be way too opinionated to do so.
dash2 2y ago
Conversely, projects without clear leadership include rust (recently) and R, and I think they suffer for it. A very widespread system for organising people is to have a single responsible decision-maker, supported, monitored and advised by a committee. We see that through politics and business, and a lot of the best open source projects seem to do the same thing.
- gpderetta 2y ago
  IMO C++ would have benefitted from having a BDFL for a bit longer as well.
kovac 2y ago
Linux, OpenBSD? Perhaps to an extent Mutt too.
giraffe_lady 2y ago
But php, one of the most notoriously chaotic mainstream languages, has a bdfl. And lua, arguably more disciplined than all of the ones you listed, has not.
- hermanradtke 2y ago
  Rasmus is not the BFDL for PHP.
- chuckadams 2y ago
  PHP is governed by an RFC process requiring a 2/3 majority vote of a couple dozen core devs. This has been the case for nearly 20 years now. Rasmus rarely even votes these days.