[E-Lang] Re: "send more newbies" (was: down with `define' (was: newbie syntax: picayune points from a prejudiced programmer))

[zooko@zooko.com]

> > I would be willing to put an article on Advogato advertising E's
> > features and asking for "how easy is it to learn" testers.

...

> I think this is a great thing to do at some point, but my own personal
> belief is that it is too early to do so. A lesson I learned hard a decade
> ago was, "you only get one first launch".


I'll defer to your and MarkM's preferences.


The canonical counter-argument is "publish early, publish often" from
The Cathedral and the Bazaar", but I think E already has enough public
participation to satisfy that maxim.


I have some recent experience with this, with Mojo Nation.  We got
slashdotted about six months before we were ready to scale.  (I *think*
we're ready to scale now, but I'd like to do some testing and tweaking
before Napster gets shut down.)


But we've survived with an active user/hacker community.


In any case, I chose Advogato over slashdot for precisely this reason:
there are fewer and better readers on Advogato.


Anyway, let me know if you want a new newbie or two -- I can try to
talk some Perl-loving friends of mine into trying _E_in_a_Walnut_...


Regards,

Zooko