Re: redisplay system of emacs

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> Hi, Paul,
>
> On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 01:11:57PM +0100, Paul R wrote:
>> Richard,
>
>> > The term "ecosystem" is best avoided because it supposes an amoral
>> > stance. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html for the
>> > explanation.
>
>> I don't think the word ecosystem "(...) implies the absence of intention
>> and ethics", as stated in this page.
>
> Are you a native English speaker?  "Ecosystem" is a system of ecology,
> which is the study of how organisms react with eachother and their
> shared environment.  Implicit in ecology is its participants'

Implicit in "ecosystem" you likely mean.

> obliviousness to ecology.
>
> There are other words which also imply interdependency yet which are
> less laden with loaded meanings.  "Ecosystem" implies its participants
> (hackers etc.) are on the level of bugs, beetles and bacteria.

With regard to their function, yes.  "Ecosystem" is used exactly when
talking about an emergent rather than controlled system.

>> Can you suggest an alternative word that expresses this simple, yet
>> fundamental, concept ?
>
> A "community" for example, which expresses all the tenets of
> interdependency and tension.

But it's simply the wrong choice of words if you want to include the
effects on entities that profit without active participation.

The FSF is a _charity_, and the whole point of a charity is that it
differs from a community by benefitting people on the receiving end.

> If you want to emphasise the ideas of competition between bits of free
> software (say, between perl, python and ruby), the best word is
> perhaps "market", or "marketplace of ideas".

Again, different connotations.

By far the largest ratio of profiting people don't act as an active part
in some "community".  Choosing terms excluding them from consideration
is not doing the concept full justice.

Since free software changes the world far beyond the scope of its active
communities, I don't find "ecosystem" a bad choice of words when
describing the _effects_ of free software, even though it may prosper
mostly from within communities.

-- 
David Kastrup