github.com/elves/elvish@v0.15.0/website/blog/newsletter-july-2017.md (about)

     1  Welcome to the first issue of Elvish Newsletter!
     2  
     3  Elvish is a shell that seeks to combine a full-fledged programming language with
     4  a friendly user interface. This newsletter is a summary of its progress and
     5  future plans.
     6  
     7  # Status Updates
     8  
     9  -   18 pull requests to the [main repo](https://github.com/elves/elvish) have
    10      been merged in the past four weeks. Among them 13 were made by @xofyargs,
    11      and the rest by @myfreeweb, @jiujieti, @HeavyHorst, @silvasur and
    12      @ALSchwalm. The [website repo](https://github.com/elves/elvish.io) has also
    13      merged 3 pull requests from @bengesoff, @zhsj and @silvasur. Many kudos!
    14  
    15  -   The [website](https://elvish.io) was [officially live](../blog/live.html) on
    16      3 July. Although the initial
    17      [submission](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14691639) to HN was a
    18      failure, Elvish gained
    19      [quite](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6l38nd/elvish_friendly_and_expressive_shell/)
    20      [some](https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/6l3aev/elvish_friendly_and_expressive_shell_written_in_go/)
    21      [popularity](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/6l6wcs/elvish_friendly_and_expressive_shell_now_ready/)
    22      on Reddit, and [another](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14698187) HN
    23      submission made to the homepage. These, among others, have brought 40k
    24      unique visitors to the website, totalling 340k HTTP requests. Thank you
    25      Internet :)
    26  
    27  -   A lot of discussions have happened over the IM channels and the issue
    28      tracker, and it has become necessary to better document the current status
    29      of Elvish and organize the development effort, and this newsletter is part
    30      of the response.
    31  
    32      There is no fixed schedule yet, but the current plan is to publish
    33      newsletters roughly every month. Preview releases of Elvish, which used to
    34      happen quite arbitrarily, will also be done to coincide with the publication
    35      of newsletters.
    36  
    37  -   There are now IM channels for developers, see below for details.
    38  
    39  # Short-Term and Mid-Term Plans
    40  
    41  The next preview release will be 0.10, and there is now a
    42  [milestone](https://github.com/elves/elvish/milestone/2) for it, a list of
    43  issues considered vital for the release. If you would like to contribute, you
    44  are more than welcome to pick an issue from that list, although you are also
    45  more than welcome to pick just any issue.
    46  
    47  Aside from the short-term goal of releasing 0.10, here are the current mid-term
    48  focus areas of Elvish development:
    49  
    50  -   Stabilizing the language core.
    51  
    52      The core of Elvish is still pretty immature, and it is definitely not as
    53      usable as any other dynamic language, say Python or Clojure. Among others,
    54      the 0.10 milestone now plans changes to the implementation of maps
    55      ([#414](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/414)), a new semantics of
    56      element assignment ([#422](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/422)) and
    57      enhanced syntax for function definition
    58      ([#82](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/82) and
    59      [#397](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/397)). You probably wouldn't
    60      expect such fundamental changes in a mature language :)
    61  
    62      A stable language core is a prerequisite for a 1.0 release. Elvish 1.x will
    63      maintain backwards compatibility with code written for earlier 1.x versions.
    64  
    65  -   Enhance usability of the user interface, and provide basic programmability.
    66  
    67      The goal is to build a fully programmable user interface, and there are a
    68      lot to be done. Among others, the 0.10 milestone plans to support
    69      manipulating the cursor ([#415](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/415))
    70      programmatically, scrolling of previews in navigation mode previews
    71      ([#381](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/381)), and invoking external
    72      editors for editing code
    73      ([#393](https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/393)).
    74  
    75      The user interface is important for two reasons. Enhancements to the UI can
    76      improve the power of Elvish directly and significantly; its API is also a
    77      very good place for testing the language. By developing the language and the
    78      user interface in parallel, we can make sure that they work well together.
    79  
    80  Like many other open source projects, you are welcome to discuss and challenge
    81  the current plan, or come up with your ideas regarding the design and
    82  implementation.
    83  
    84  (So what's the long-term goal of Elvish? The long-term goal is to remove the
    85  "seeks to" part from the introduction of Elvish at the beginning of the post.)
    86  
    87  # Development IM Channels
    88  
    89  To better coordinate development, there are now IM channels for Elvish
    90  development: [#elvish-dev](http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=elvish-dev) on
    91  freenode, [elves/elvish-dev](https://gitter.im/elves/elvish-dev) on Gitter and
    92  [@elvish_dev](https://telegram.me/elvish_dev) on Telegram. These channels are
    93  all connected together thanks to [fishroom](https://github.com/tuna/fishroom).
    94  
    95  For general questions, you are welcome in
    96  [#elvish](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=elvish) on Freenode,
    97  [elves/elvish-public](https://gitter.im/elves/elvish-public) on Gitter, or
    98  [@elvish](https://telegram.me/elvish) on Telegram.
    99  
   100  # Conclusion
   101  
   102  This concludes this first issue of the newsletter. Hopefully future issues of
   103  this newsletter will also feature blog posts from Elvish users like _Elvish for
   104  Python Users_ and popular Elvish modules like _Tetris in Your Shell_ :)
   105  
   106  Have Fun with Elvish!
   107  
   108  \- xiaq