I want to take a further step back, and say it would help for everyone
to be really-super-clear on what's motivating Racket2, and what we
really want to accomplish. (I know a good effort has already been made,
but I get the impression not everyone has the same idea yet, and I think
even more is needed.)
Putting on my software engineering hat... If we ever did a really
rigorous requirements analysis, inevitably percolating up to and refined
at the top would be what are the root goals (not far below general
happiness and truth) that everything else ultimately served. If we know
this, we can skip the (absolutely grueling) full analysis, and focus on
the root goals.
It might turn out that things like "improve basic education and CS
education", "advance PL research", "have greater impact on industry
practice", and "career development"... are a few steps above "needs of
the current developer community", and so, in a sense, the current
community would only be a resource in service of those other, higher goals.
In that case, the current non-core developer community would certainly
remain useful for promotion/buzz, impact validation including on grant
proposals, sounding board and useful input (Aaron Turon mentioned this
sometimes happened), and potentially labor. But the requirements
decomposition would be clear that the relationship was *not* like city
councilors representing the interests of the current constituents, *but*
more like a volatile network of mutually-beneficial relationships among
independent companies.
Were it a network of multually-beneficial relationships, then, given
that this is Racket, I think we can safely soften it a bit with some of
those independent interests being altruistic
for-the-greater-good-of-humanity, but I doubt those are the community
member's only interests.
Or maybe the needs of the current/legacy community are a top requirement
(truly separate from how that would serve those other goals), and we
should be clear on why, and what importance that has relative to the
other top requirements, and then maybe ask why again, to be sure that
makes sense. (I emphasize the why, because, as a "community member"
most of the time since PLT v103, I'd have difficulty arguing that my own
interests should be a consideration to anyone else at this point.)
In any case, this might be a little time for everyone to reflect on
their interests, and then we could try to be really-super-clear that we
all have identical shared understanding about what's motivating Racket2.
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