*old response to djer.

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>It's difficult to predict the future with any degree of accuracy where
>any voluteer project is concerned.  But if enthusiasm and drive have
>anything to do with it, the FreeBSD Project has a bright future indeed.
>Far from resting on its laurels, the team is looking for fresh
>challenges.
>
>[caps by djer]
>
>HAVING SPLIT DEVELOPMENT INTO INTO TWO BRANCES, "-STABLE" (I.E.
>SEMIFROZEN) AND "-CURRENT"(I.E.  IN FLUX), A LARGE NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS
>HAVE BEEN FREED TO CONCENTRATE ON NEW SOLUTIONS WITHOUT SACRIFICING
>STABILITY.

Having now seen this reference, I think that there is a key difference
from Lojban.  In our case, the primary movers and shakers of the project
are drooling for "-STABLE" and the moment it appears will have no
interest in working on, supporting, or even tolerating efforts to
develop some successor labelled "-CURRENT".

To put it bluntly - I am tired of being a language designer.  The
purpose of the Loglan project was NOT to design or to improve a language
but to USE a language that had first to BE designed.

The process of development needs to be over.  As long as there are
fiddlers, there will be far less users.  (People use software that is
subject to "improvement" knowing that a) the developer usually promises
complete backward compatibility and b) they can always ignore and not
purchase a new version and get what they originally wanted out of the
old package.  This does not work well for conlangs because a) it is
likely that some changes will NOT be backwards compatible and b)
especially if the changes are major enough, they will no longer be able
to use their old version.

It is vaguely possible that a student of 1975 Loglan could write
something that a 1996 TLI Loglan student could figure out.  It is NOT
likely, however, for anything but the simplest texts using only gismu
and cmavo.  It is even less possible that a student of 1975 Loglan would
write something a 1996 Lojban student could understand.  Because 1975
Loglan never achieved functionality, people who learned it (other than
for the purpose of "improving it") largely wasted their time.

lojbab