inheritance in E

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

> >My belief is that if we are prepared to
> >respond quickly by re-introducing inheritance, people will conclude
> >that it was a worthwhile experiment.
> 
> Jonathan, I yearn to agree with you on this strategy. But products only get
> one first launch, one chance to get people to lift their eyeballs off their
> current effort to make an assessment of whether you have something they
> should pay attention to...

If it were ommitted from the launch without comment, I concur.  I
believe that we could survive an inheritance-less alpha as a test
case, which is what I had in mind.  This is one respect in which I
think the early adopters for Open Source stuff may be more tolerant
than the population at large.

Still, your point is well taken.  May I suggest only that you consider
such an alpha as a tactical possibility and discuss the issue through
with MarkM.   Between the two of you I have complete faith in a good
outcome.  For that matter, it's a choice of goods.

I would add only that I agree wholeheartedly with Dean Tribble.
Either inheritance must be removed entirely from the *concept* space
in E, or syntax for it must be retained in the language.  Hybrid
non-solutions seem to me to be the worst of all possible outcomes.


Jonathan