WHEREAS, John K. Ousterhout advises the Tcl Core Team that, in his
opinion, he has not made a significant contribution to Tcl in the last
five years; and further
WHEREAS, Dr. Ousterhout further advises the team that he is confident
that Tcl and the Tk toolkit are in good hands with the current Tcl
Core Team; and further
WHEREAS, Dr. Ousterhout further advises the team that he wishes to be
accounted a Tcl Core Team member emeritus; and further
WHEREAS, it is impossible to give an adequate account of
Dr. Ousterhout's accomplishments as the true "father of Tcl/Tk:" from
overseeing its initial construction in the laboratories at Berkeley,
through overseeing its publicity and recruiting community development,
through its period of commercial development at Sun, Scriptics, and
Ajuba, into the community-maintained system that it is today:
activities for which he richly deserved the ACM Software System Award
that the Association for Computing Machinery granted him in 1997, his
induction as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in
1994, and his membership in the National Academy of Engineering; and
further
WHEREAS, Dr. Ousterhout is mentioned by name in the fundamental
documents (TIP #0 and TIP #2) defining the Tcl Core Team, and accorded
especial privileges as "Benevolent Dictator" with the ability to
resolve any deadlocks by executive fiat; and further
WHEREAS, the "Benevolent Dictator Clause" has been long regarded by
the Tcl Core Team as an important "safety valve" in its process; and
further
WHEREAS, Dr. Ousterhout's departure will necessitate reonsideration of
that element of the Tcl Core Team's charter;
NOW THEREFORE be it
RESOLVED, that the Tcl Core Team accepts with the profoundest regret
the resignation of Dr. John K. Ousterhout from its ranks, and offers
him heartfelt thanks and admiration for his many years of tireless
service; and be it further
RESOLVED, that Dr. John K. Ousterhout shall be designated
FOUNDER AND MEMBER EMERITUS OF THE TCL CORE TEAM
a title that can be rightfully applied only to him; and further be it
RESOLVED, that the Tcl Core Team do at once commit to a Committee of
the Whole to propose appropriate Amendments to its Constitution and
By-Laws (as set forth in Tcl Improvement Proposals #0 and #2), and
that said Committee of the Whole shall rise and report at such time as
it shall find convenient, but in any event no later than 31 January
2009.
DONE, this fifteenth day of December, 2008
For the Tcl Core Team
Mo DeJong
Joe English
Donal K. Fellows
Jeffrey Hobbs
George A. Howlett
Kevin B. Kenny
Andreas Kupries
Karl Lehenbauer
Jan Nijtmans
John K. Ousterhout, founder and member emeritus
Donald G. Porter
Miguel Sofer
Daniel A. Steffen
I would like to thank you for this important announcement,
WHEREAS the impact it will have on the Tcl community.
WHEREAS, I would also like to thank, WHEREAS, Dr. Ousterhout for
creating such a great language WHEREAS it is enjoyed by countless
individuals WHEREAS worldwide. WHEREAS, I'm sorry to to see Dr.
Ousterhout go, but I suppose all things come to an end.
Sincerely WHEREAS,
Paul Walton
;)
Several people have been privately and publicly poking fun at
the choice of language. I was following conventional parliamentary
procedure when I drafted these resolutions:
http://www.robertsrules.org/rror-01.htm#4
Yes, the phrasing is stilted, but it serves for Westminster,
Capitol Hill, and even the Canadians and Aussies.
--
73 de k9etv/2, Kevin
In any case, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to Dr. Ousterhout for
creating and releasing under an extremely generous license this
elegant language that I have used on almost a daily basis for the past
seven or so years. While it hasn't necessarily helped me get any
jobs, it has helped me do my work in every job I've held but one in
the past seven years. On top of all that, it is just a pleasure to
program in Tcl/Tk. So, many thanks, Dr. Ousterhout, and best wishes
for the future.
All through these 20 yrs, from the beginning you offered marvelous
support to one of the most prestegious languages ever in the history
of computers.
My Adieu to you Sir Ousterhout.
Tcl is my alltime favourite language.
Thanks a lot for offering this wonderful language and making ways for
many people through this.
All the best for your future and hope Tcl will have its green going as
ever in the future also.
"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also
be the beginning."
Now is a good time to be reminded of how it all got started, in Sir
John's own words:
http://www.tcl.tk/about/history.html
A good read!
Gerry
And yet Tcl is still getting new users like me :-) I don't know how I
overlooked it in the past. But after feeling constrained by VB, Java,
Python, etc., I finally started digging into the details of Tcl last
week, and it's been an amazing experience. I'm simply astonished to
be able to write and run Tcl/Tk applications on my mobile phone.
Bernard
Heinz-Jürgen Oertel
port GmbH