Concerning Governance in programming languages

Concerning Governance
in programming languages

November 2015
Luis García Castro

Introduction

Luis García Castro

Software Engineer @ Sopra Steria

twitter.com/luiyo

plus.google.com/+LuisGarcíaCastro

linkedin.com/in/LuisGC

github.com/LuisGC

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Presentation made with the awesome Open Source tool Impress.js

Why am I here...

Original idea and disclaimers first...

Table of contents

Important aspects of governance

Governance systems
Software licenses
Community value: size, relevance, diversity, ...
Language Health: presence, activity and evolution

Analysis of some languages

Java, C, C#, Python, PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl,
Groovy, Go, Rust and Clojure

Comparing them together...

by public projects, by jobs posted, by SO activity,
by corporate interest, ...

My own Magic Quadrant

Discuss!! ;-)

Important aspects of governance

Original Source: unknown (sorry)

This aspects are related to the Governance itself, but also to the community and the language general health

Governance systems: BDFLs vs Boards

Source: teaparty.org

BDFLs

Dennis Ritchie* in C
Guido van Rossum in Python
Yukihiro Matsumoto* in Ruby
Larry Wall in Perl
Rich Hickey in Clojure

Main Free Software Licenses

Source: Understanding the Open Source License and Compliance Issues

Some licenses are no copy left compatible:

GPL: FSF yes, copyleft Yes
BSD: FSF yes, GPL compatible NO, copyleft No
MIT: FSF yes, GPL compatible yes, copyleft No
AL: FSF yes, GPL compatible yes, copyleft No
MPL: FSF yes, GPL compatible yes, copyleft Partial

Community size and relevance

Source: Nicolas Vigier | Flickr

Community diversity

Source: Django Girls at PyConEs 2015

Attributes: age, culture, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, national origin, physical or mental difference, politics, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and subculture.

Source: python.org

Language Health

Source: Redmonk.com

Language popularity

TIOBE Programming Community index - Nov 2015

Source: TIOBE Programming Community Index

The TIOBE Programming Community index is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors

Public presence (and activity)

Source: githut.info

Language evolution

Source: @fabianenardon at JavaOne 2015

Java 1: 1997

Java 5: 2004

Java 8: 2014

Let's analyze
some of the main languages

For each of them we'll review:

Designer and year of birth
License
Last stable version
Standardized and governance system
Relevant aspects

Java

Designed by James Gosling @ Sun Microsystems in 1995
GNU GPL License (since 2007)

Last stable version: v1.8 (published in 18/03/2014)

Standardized: de facto standard

Language is defined in the Java Language Specification
The JCP defines and improves the standard

Relevant aspects:

Java is open, but is the process?
The JCP is transparent and more or less plural
Oracle has abused of the JCP sometimes

Source: Wikipedia

A de facto standard is a custom, convention, product, or system that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market forces (such as early entrance to the market)

JCP Timeline

Source: jcp.org/en/introduction/timeline

C

Designed by Dennis Ritchie @ Bell Labs in 1972
GNU GPL License (since 2007)

Last stable version: C11 (published in 08/12/2011)

Standardized: since 1989 (ANSI C89, ISO C90, ISO C99, ISO C11)

the WG14 defines and improves the standard

Relevant aspects:

The WG14 membership is unclear
One of the oldest, but still evolving! :-)

Source: Wikipedia

...

Dennis Ritchie FTW

Original Source: unknown (sorry)

Dennis Ritchie started as BDFL but ceded control to the Working Group

Notable work

C (with Brian Kernighan)
Unix (with Ken Thompson)
Unix Programmer's Manual (1971)
The C Programming Language or K&R (1978)

C#

Designed by a Microsoft team lead by Anders Hejlsberg in 2000
The CLR (Common Language Runtime) is proprietary but thanks to The Mono Project there is a Free and Open implementation* by Miguel de Icaza @ Ximian since 2004

Last stable version: v6.0 (published in 20/07/2015)

Standardized: since 2000 (ECMA-334, ISO/IEC 23270:2006)

Microsoft defines the standard and improves the language

Relevant aspects:

Microsoft is leading the development of a new Open Source C# compiler, codenamed Rosylin

Source: Wikipedia

Microsoft tried first with a non standard implementation of Java... but finally desisted

The Mono Project

Mono provides an Open Source compiler, but does not cover all since v4.0

Without any official support and despite potential legal issues hanging over their heads, they pushed forward and created an incredibly capable alternative to the official runtime implementation

Python

Designed by Guido van Rossum in 1991
Python Software Foundation License (since 2001)

Last stable version: v3.5.0 / v2.7.10 (published in 13/09/2015 and 23/05/2015 respectively)

Standardized: No

The Python Software Foundation fosters the development and improves the language

Relevant aspects:

Python is driven by its community, almost everything is discussed in the mailing list
CPython, the reference implementation, is written in C, but there is another interpreter (PyPy) written in RPython

Source: Wikipedia

Pypy survives with public fundings and private donations. The port to ARM architecture was sponsored in part by the Raspberry Pi Foundation

RPython (Restricted Python)

The Zen of Python

Source: PEP 20 - The Zen of Python

A common neologism in the Python community is pythonic

An important goal of the Python developers is making Python fun to use

PHP

Designed by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995
PHP License (not GPL compatible)

Last stable version: v5.6.15 (published in 29/10/2015)

Standardized: No

Almost anyone can submit an RFC, but The PHP Group is in command

Relevant aspects:

The PHP Group membership is unclear
The release process was improved recently through a RFC

Source: Wikipedia

You can always fork PHP from github

The PHP Community

Source: php.ug

Facebook, Wordpress

JavaScript

Designed by Brendan Eich @ Netscape in 1995
Rhino has MPL license, V8 has BSD license

Last stable version: ECMAScript 6 (published in 17/06/2015)

Standardized: since 1997 (ECMA 262)

The TC39 Group defines and improves the standard

Relevant aspects:

TC39 membership process is unclear, and it's coped by multinationals
Don't panic, but "JavaScript" is a trademark of Oracle
LiveScript vs JScript vs JavaScript vs ECMAScript

Source: Wikipedia

Choose your JS flavour... till it stales

Source: Ember.js: An Antidote To Your Hype Fatigue

...

Ruby

Designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in 1995
Ruby License and GPLv2

Last stable version: v2.2.3 (published in 18/08/2015)

Standardized: since 2011 (JIS X 3017, ISO/IEC 30170)

The Ruby Core is improved by its community

Relevant aspects:

Commit rights are (apparently) obtained by merits,
but Matz's approval is always required

Source: Wikipedia

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Source: http://poignant.guide/book

Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is released under the Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Perl

Designed by Larry Wall @ Unisys in 1987
GNU GPL License

Last stable version: v5.22.0 (published in 01/06/2015)

Standardized: No

Perl 5 is actively maintained and developed by a large group of dedicated volunteers.
Perl 6 will be a brand new language, scheduled for release by the end of 2015

Relevant aspects:

"We're really serious about reinventing everything that needs reinventing" --Larry Wall about Perl6
The Perl community rocks: Lingua::Romana::Perligata module, Perl Poetry, ...

Source: Wikipedia

TIMTOWTDI

Source: O'Reilly | Programming Perl, 3rd Edition

There's more than one way to do it (pronounced Tim Toady)

Groovy

Designed by James Strachan in 2003
Apache License v2.0 (since 2015)

Last stable version: v2.4.4 (published in 09/07/2015)

Standardized: in progress* through the JCP (JSR 241)

From the Groovy Incubation proposal: "Groovy, up to this, has been run by a few core project members with a lot of contributions coming from a wide community of participants in the project"

Relevant aspects:

G2One acquired by SpringSource (2008), then acquired by VMWare (2009), then moved to Pivotal (2013), then dumped by them and finally moved to the Apache SF (2015)
Groovy is growing massively, although it is still adapting to the Apache Incubator conditions

Source: Wikipedia

Apache Groovy

Source: Groovy Project Incubation Status

...

Go

Designed by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and
Ken Thompson @ Google in 2009
BSD-style license

Last stable version: v1.5.1 (published in 08/09/2015)

Standardized: No

The Go community defines and improves the language

Relevant aspects:

Community driven, but with major support (and some control) by Google
Griesemer, Pike and Thompson had the luxury to spend 2 years designing the basics

Source: Wikipedia

Issue #9

Source: Go Language Issue Tracker

Remark the amount of comments in favour of Francis McCabe

Rust

Designed by Graydon Hoare @ Mozilla in 2010
Apache License v2.0

Last stable version: v1.4 (published in 29/10/2015)

Standardized: No

Rust has a community-driven development process where most decisions are made through consensus, under the stewardship of a 'core team' with the main comitters

Relevant aspects:

Rust grew out of a personal project, Mozilla began sponsoring the project in 2009 and announced it in 2010
The RFC process itself has been discussed publicly through public RFCs. Last one is Scaling Rust's Governance #1068

Source: Wikipedia

Mozilla Foundation

Source: mozilla.org

Principles

The Internet is an integral part of modern life—a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
The Internet must enrich the lives of individual human beings.
Individuals’ security and privacy on the Internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.
Individuals must have the ability to shape the Internet and their own experiences on the Internet.
The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.
Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust.
Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.
Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.