From: vo...@math.berkeley.edu (Paul Vojta)
Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: GNU TeX 0.80 (beta)
Date: 1999/01/23
Message-ID: <78dscu$pg$1@tashkent.berkeley.edu>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 436165838
References: <lQXn2.1$S36.166@news12.ispnews.com> <36A89F39.4DA32F4A@urbanophile.com> <742q2.198$NN.9427@ptah.visi.com> <36A8B5CB.F1F2B529@urbanophile.com>
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department.
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,gnu.misc.discuss

In article <36A8B5CB.F1F2B...@urbanophile.com>,
Aaron M. Renn <ar...@urbanophile.com> wrote:
>Peter Seebach wrote:
>> Essentially, the problem is, you can't wait until someone fulfills your goals
>> and then say "ah-hah!  That's my goal, therefore, I can put my name on it."
>
>Did you just beam into this planet?  The publicly stated goal of the GNU
>project has always been to create a free, Unix compatible operating system. 
>I suggest you try reading the GNU manifesto.  Nobody suddenly jumped up with
>the goal of writing a free operating system after it became a reality.

OK, so the problem is, you can't publicly announce a goal, plod along towards
an unrealistically perfect vision of that goal, and then when someone else
fulfulls that goal first, suddenly say, ``Ah-hah!  That's my goal, therefore,
I can put my name on it.''

--Paul Vojta, vo...@math.berkeley.edu