"Fast growth has its problems." I don't think we need to worry about that.
Even if we're successful with a marketing campaign, it will take time to aggregate substantial numbers of new Smalltalkers. It may take years to reach the top 20 on Redmond. (We should be so lucky to have this problem.) Building an ecosystem is not about funding. Developers (and businesses) write new and useful libraries out of need *when they choose to use your programming language*. Ask yourself this: Smalltalk, in its various flavours, has been used commercially for more than three decades. After all this time, why are there still useful libraries missing, libraries that you find in the Java and Python worlds? Can you honestly tell me that over the next 5-10 years, we'll see the gaps in our library ecosystem filled in? I wouldn't bet my lunch money... Ben Coman wrote >> This mentality sequesters Pharo within its boutique or clubhouse. The >> tool >> is used only by a limited cadre of exuberant fans, and outsiders, while >> they're welcome to join, *will not be missed if they go elsewhere*. > >> This mentality says that the *size* of the Pharo community is not >> especially >> important. Big, small, or medium...you don't really care, as long as >> *you're* having a good time with Pharo. The problem with this mentality >> is >> that **a healthy library ecosystem is dependent upon a user community >> that >> grows large enough to support it**. > > But fast growth also has its problems... > https://www.groovehq.com/blog/scaling > > Particularly see point 1) "Scaling Shifts Your Team’s Focus" > I believe Pharo is still in a stage where it needs a lot of agility. > IF there was suddenly a large influx of newbies, then EITHER: > * the experts spend *all* their time answering newbie questions and > not moving the platform forward (with a wider pool of disruptive > opinions) > OR... > * the newbies are ignored, get a bad experience, leave, and then "tell > everyone else about it". > > Currently early adopters of Pharo get the benefit of great support > from a direct line with the experts, which enhances their good > experience which they can report to others. However it takes time to > grow a community to have a range of middle experience levels to buffer > the experts so they can continue to do *real* work to drive the > platform forward. No matter how much you do on marketing, you can't > get away from the reality that sustainable *community* growth takes > time. > >> In other words, until the user community reaches **critical mass**, a >> strong >> library ecosystem will not develop. Without a strong ecosystem, the >> breadth >> of applicability to various problem domains is severely limited. > > But you don't reach critical mass until the library ecosystem is > sufficient for the masses. Its catch-22. This "bring them and they > will build it" has similar trouble as you concern against "build it > and the will come". > > But if you can serve some limited domains very well, maybe you get > enough funds to provide time to build a broader library ecosystem. > http://www.inc.com/karl-and-bill/build-your-business-one-customer-at-a-time.html > > cheers -ben -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/PharoJVM-tp4866633p4866835.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
