[sword-devel] Announcing Sword++

[Ryan Hiebert]

> On Sep 26, 2016, at 11:43 AM, Peter von Kaehne <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> Given that there is, just as Matej points out, likely only "market" space for one library , I think success of your fork will mean exactly this - regression and breakage for those parts you are not interested in. You have made this very clear.

It is certainly possible that there is only room for one library in the "market". If this is the case, and this fork becomes the choice of the market, then it should be apparent that the original did not make the choices that the market needed. Nobody likes split attention, but if a fork becomes used in practice, then it is by definition doing the right thing, because it's doing what the users need.

It really serves no purpose to get upset about someone making, and sharing, their own personal fork. Instead, we can use that as knowledge to help shape the direction of the project, so that it's more responsive to the needs of the users. If their needs are met, then people will continuing using the library that they have already been using.

If there's nothing significant to learn from the fork, and users are happy enough with the original library, it's quite unlikely that we'll see a mass exodus to a misguided fork. Inertia has the advantage.

I hope this comes across as a reasonable, balanced perspective on the competition of forks, even in a small community.

Yours in Christ,

Ryan Hiebert