How many people write anything in Python or Ruby that is not compatible with CPython and MRI Ruby? The lowest common denominators in those communities are still the reference implementations and any production grade library conforms to that lowest common denominator.
If the library is binary-compatible with that reference implementation (as the typelevel guys say they will be), why would you as a user care which compiler was used to compile it? A lot of typelevel code already uses macros or compiler plugins to generate source (I've even heard that at one point the Shapeless code was generated using Freemarker templates) - but as users we just depend on their released jars and don't have to worry about any of that.
We've tried to avoid creating a "drama"; that's not the intention at all. But we want to attract other developers to our experimental fork, so that if you want to use new and exciting features, or contribute your own, you don't have the entire burden of maintaining your own fork. The hope is that the Typelevel fork will gain enough critical mass to encourage people to develop new language features where they previously wouldn't have bothered, due to the high costs involved (in terms of maintenance) and limited returns. It really is meant to be a community effort.
a) It's a useful project for other library authors; of course they want to announce it.
b) I think the part tucked away at the end about a foundation is actually the most important part. Scala's currently owned by one university and also partially by typesafe, and while on the whole they've done a good job there are a lot of stakeholders who aren't really represented there. For a language that so many different organizations are depending on, I think it's time there was something a little more formal and dependable; many other languages have similar foundations.
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If the library is binary-compatible with that reference implementation (as the typelevel guys say they will be), why would you as a user care which compiler was used to compile it? A lot of typelevel code already uses macros or compiler plugins to generate source (I've even heard that at one point the Shapeless code was generated using Freemarker templates) - but as users we just depend on their released jars and don't have to worry about any of that.
Why all the hoopla then? Just go ahead and do it. Why make a public stand and generate so much drama?
We've tried to avoid creating a "drama"; that's not the intention at all. But we want to attract other developers to our experimental fork, so that if you want to use new and exciting features, or contribute your own, you don't have the entire burden of maintaining your own fork. The hope is that the Typelevel fork will gain enough critical mass to encourage people to develop new language features where they previously wouldn't have bothered, due to the high costs involved (in terms of maintenance) and limited returns. It really is meant to be a community effort.
a) It's a useful project for other library authors; of course they want to announce it.
b) I think the part tucked away at the end about a foundation is actually the most important part. Scala's currently owned by one university and also partially by typesafe, and while on the whole they've done a good job there are a lot of stakeholders who aren't really represented there. For a language that so many different organizations are depending on, I think it's time there was something a little more formal and dependable; many other languages have similar foundations.