I believe Elm took some major missteps. Despite doing so many things right with the initial designs (and still one of the best designed front-end experiences) it never grew much beyond the early adopters and it basically remained a fun hobby language.
I criticized the basic lack of communication and the infrequent updates in r/elm (I believed these infrequent updates were going to kill the momentum of Elm). I was concerned that it made the language seem stagnant.
Immediately, after posting it was clear it was a major concern by others as well.
So what did Evan do with that criticism? He spent the opening part of his European talk mocking it [0].
I didn’t take it personally, but it illustrated the kind of mindset Evan has. A good leader would have asked questions about why many feel that way and would have instituted a process for more frequent updates. It became clear to me, outside of being brilliant at designing Elm he is not the person to take it to the next level of adoption. If it’s not moderately adopted it won’t make sense recommending it for any production project, even if it does many things right.
To me it feels like (sadly) Elm will just be a hobby project despite what it could have been.
[0] https://youtu.be/uGlzRt-FYto
I criticized the basic lack of communication and the infrequent updates in r/elm (I believed these infrequent updates were going to kill the momentum of Elm). I was concerned that it made the language seem stagnant.
Immediately, after posting it was clear it was a major concern by others as well. So what did Evan do with that criticism? He spent the opening part of his European talk mocking it [0].
I didn’t take it personally, but it illustrated the kind of mindset Evan has. A good leader would have asked questions about why many feel that way and would have instituted a process for more frequent updates. It became clear to me, outside of being brilliant at designing Elm he is not the person to take it to the next level of adoption. If it’s not moderately adopted it won’t make sense recommending it for any production project, even if it does many things right.
To me it feels like (sadly) Elm will just be a hobby project despite what it could have been.
[0] https://youtu.be/uGlzRt-FYto