> ... in programming there is a wide-spread 1st order theory that one shouldn't build one's own tools, languages, and especially operating systems. This is true

> ... in programming there is a wide-spread 1st order theory that one shouldn't build one's own tools, languages, and especially operating systems. This is true—an incredible amount of time and energy has gone down these ratholes. On the 2nd hand, if you can build your own tools, languages and operating systems, then you absolutely should because the leverage that can be obtained (and often the time not wasted in trying to fix other people's not quite right tools) can be incredible. Alan Kay, "The Power Of The Context", p.8, https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004001_power.pdf https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m... EDIT google search (mostly) provides a "Quick View" link for pdfs - there's also addons for chrome/FF that add a right-click context menu option to open a file in google view, useful for checking out lecture notes/slides, that often are a list of pdf links.