guild hall, R7RS, and the name

guild hall, R7RS, and the name

[John Gabriele]

Hi,

There's been some discussion recently at the scheme-reports ML about a
distributed module repository. Would a guildhall be necessary if there
were a central R7RS module repository (duplication of effort)?

If so, what sort of interaction would there be (if any) between
guildhall and an R7RS repository?

Incidentally, a while back I emailed Andy about the name "Guild Hall",
and thought it might be useful -- if only for posterity -- to
reproduce that email here. Please see below:

***

Hi Andy,

Just poked my head into the guile-devel ML and noticed your recent
post about Guild:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2011-06/msg00026.html

This is very exciting news! So glad to hear there's movement in
getting a cpan-alike going for Guile. :)

Regarding the choice of name, I think "Guild" sounds pretty good:

* goes well with "Guile" (and GNU),
* has some nice connotations (craftsmanship, union),
* will make for interesting styling of the future Guildhall website
(wrought iron maybe?), and
* "join the guild" & "contribute to the guild" have a nice ring to them.

For better or worse, the name might make people think of
[D&D](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_and_dragons) though.

The only name I think I might like better is "Galley" (the kitchen
area of a ship), because:

* good analogy: a galley contains food (like a package repo contains packages)

* like "guild", "galley" also goes nicely with the names "Guile" and "GNU"

* it doesn't have the D&D feel to it that Guild/Guildhall might

* naturally leads to some cool expressions: "You need package X? Have
you checked the Galley?", "What's cookin' in the Galley today?" (that
is, recent uploads), "if your package isn't deemed ship-shape (by a
kwalitee-checking `ship-shape` script?), it won't be allowed in the
galley", etc.

* can get some mileage out of nautical/maritime (or Pirate! ;) ) theme
for the Galley site

* upload packages via a `stock-the-galley` tool?

* ooh, various helper scripts named after "Love Boat" characters:
Stubing, Bricker, Gopher, Isaac ...? (Oh no, did I actually type that
out loud?)

Arrrg matey, sorry for the bikeshedding! :)

***

---John

Re: guild hall, R7RS, and the name

[Andy Wingo]

Hi John!

On Wed 28 Sep 2011 19:51, John Gabriele <jmg3000@gmail.com> writes:

> There's been some discussion recently at the scheme-reports ML about a
> distributed module repository. Would a guildhall be necessary if there
> were a central R7RS module repository (duplication of effort)?

Good question.  It is hypothetical at this point, of course.  But for
myself, I think the answer is yes: we support r6rs as well, and Guile's
native modules.  The guildhall should also support r7rs modules at some
point.

I don't think that there's any reason to prefer Alex's R7RS packaging
initiative over Andreas's R6RS packager, and given that the latter
actually exists and runs on Guile, it seems the appropriate place to
invest energy.

> If so, what sort of interaction would there be (if any) between
> guildhall and an R7RS repository?

Dunno!  Definitely something to think about down the road.

> Incidentally, a while back I emailed Andy about the name "Guild Hall",
> and thought it might be useful -- if only for posterity -- to
> reproduce that email here. Please see below:

It was a good mail, thanks.  I did read it back when you sent it, but as
you can see, I somehow managed to get deluged and am now sorting through
the flotsam...

> Regarding the choice of name, I think "Guild" sounds pretty good:
>
> * goes well with "Guile" (and GNU),
> * has some nice connotations (craftsmanship, union),
> * will make for interesting styling of the future Guildhall website
> (wrought iron maybe?), and
> * "join the guild" & "contribute to the guild" have a nice ring to them.
>
> For better or worse, the name might make people think of
> [D&D](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_and_dragons) though.

For both, I think.  I kinda dig it though.  Kids in basements telling
stories to each other, acting them out: that's what we're doing, right?
We all get older, and I never got into D&D myself, but to me D&D isn't a
negative association to have, because it is what we are doing in
essence.

> The only name I think I might like better is "Galley" (the kitchen
> area of a ship), because [great reasons elided :)]

I did like this suggestion as well :-)

Andy
-- 
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