Ian leaving and the glorious future

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

Dear ghc-dev friends,

Ian has now officially left Well Typed, so there now isn't anyone whose day job it is to respond to GHC bug mail, Trac tickets etc.  Well Typed are hiring, and there will be someone new in due course, but until then there will be a hiatus.

In general, this is part of what I see as a long, slow movement: as time goes on, GHC is becoming more and more public property.  Simon M's move to Facebook is another part of that movement.  Increasingly, GHC is going to rely more on the community to maintain and develop it, and less on GHC HQ.  And when I say "the community", I think firstly of the ghc-devs list :-).

If the community is to be expected to do more of the work, they should also get more influence about decisions.  I don't think there's any rush, but I'm open to forming a GHC steering committee (if you would like) to broaden the sense of "ownership".

Don't worry: I'm not bowing out!  But I am very much trying to encourage you to feel that GHC is *your* compiler, not just SPJ/SM's compiler that you can contribute to.    I'm open to suggestions for how best to nurture broad participation.

And meanwhile, in the current hiatus, any support that any of you can give is hugely welcome!

Thanks.

Simon
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