D Language Foundation Weekly Planning Session Update

[Mike Parker]

On Wednesday, 17 May 2023 at 12:52:03 UTC, Guillaume Piolat wrote:
> On Wednesday, 17 May 2023 at 11:26:41 UTC, Abdulhaq wrote:
>> Seriously though, over the years Mike has demonstrated he's a 
>> very solid and sensible person.
>
> Exactly my thoughts. I'm as sceptic as the next person, but 
> heck this is coming from Mike.

Thanks, guys. I promise I'm not selling all my possessions and 
running off to a hilltop to await the end of the world.

I *am* excited about IVY, but only as a means to an end. What I'm 
*more* excited about is that we're finally making a concerted 
effort to organize and manage the D project. That's what I wanted 
everyone to take away from my initial announcement, and I 
expected that would be the big news. I was surprised by all the 
focus on IVY.

It's not magic or fluff. It's not some miracle. It's a tool. 
We're the ones who have to do the work. This just helps us see a 
way forward to get it done.

I stand by what I said earlier. I simply cannot express in a 
forum post what I've taken away from the program. Every single 
one of us who participated had a first impression that was wrong, 
and it took several sessions to get through that. Speaking for 
myself, I heard what Saeed was telling us, but I didn't see how 
it could really help us. Once I got over the hump, it made much 
more sense, and the rest of the program was just reinforcement. I 
thought Dennis had gotten to the same place by the end. I see now 
he hasn't, but he's still willing to give it a go.

IVY is more than just vision statements. It's a mindset, a shift 
in perspective. Some people will "get it", some won't. And that's 
fine. I didn't even want to use the words "vision statement" just 
yet, as there are other programs out there that use the same 
terminology. IVY is not like those programs.

The more contributors who get it, the better, as it will make it 
easier for us to collaborate. But we can still work with people 
who don't get it, or who don't want to. So it's not going to bar 
anyone from contributing if they want nothing to do with it.

What it comes down to at its core is communication. That's the 
heart of it.

I promise, everyone will learn more about IVY as we go along. I 
just want to speak to some regular contributors about it first so 
we can get down to business with it sooner rather than later, and 
so I can see if my approach to explaining it works. If they get 
it, then they can help me help others get it. And as I write 
about the work we're doing in the coming weeks, I'll be throwing 
in some details about how we're employing IVY so that people can 
get an idea of what it looks like in action.

I'm going to hang out in BeerConf a bit this month. While I'm 
there, I'm happy to answer any questions about IVY and how we're 
employing it. It's much easier to communicate what it is in a 
real-time context than in the forums. And my offer still stands 
to chat about it with anyone who's interested.