
Steve Yegge: Systems should never reboot - foemmel
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/01/pinocchio-problem.html
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stcredzero
When a Smalltalk image saves, it's very analogous to a Windows or Linux box
hibernating. The upshot of this -- you can think of the Smalltalk image as
something like an OS that has been "up" since 1980! (With periods of
hibernation.) The Squeak image is directly derived from the Smalltalk-80
image. The VisualWorks image has been incrementally evolved from it as well.
The thing is a program that was brought up decades ago, and has hibernated,
been replicated, but _has never rebooted_!

Steve is right that systems should never have to boot. You can have a whole OS
that operates like that. (The Smalltalk image started out as an OS. In the
original ST-80 image, there are 4 primitives for moving the drive head out,
moving it in, lifting it off the platter, and putting it down!)

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skenney26
> "...they all screwed up lexical scoping."

I have read a number of comments like this recently. I am very curious about
what this implies but the person making the statement never gives an
explanation.

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herdrick
Yegge at his grand best. But he didn't mention the most lively of all living
software: software that gets smarter with use - i.e. makes use of using
machine learning. This is the software that feels most alive to its creator
and users. It grows like a dog or a child. The software Stevey talks about
merely grows like a city.

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yariv
Welcome to Erlang :)

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aristus
He missed one: every program expands until it can read email, or is replaced
by one that does.

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abstractbill
Zawinski's law. And the modern version is that every program attempts to
expand until it becomes a social network.

