[swift-evolution] Large Proposal: Non-Standard Libraries

[Félix Fischer]

Hmm. I kind of like the idea, but not really. I think it has a fundamental
flaw: centralization.

You see, the StdLib can be commanded by a central authority (the core team)
and hear the needs of the general community (through swift-evolution and
such) because, among other things, it’s small. The StdLib solves common and
well-understood problems. Most of the solutions it provides are optimal for
all use cases.

This is fundamentally different from a non-StdLib. If I understood your
idea correctly, it would be the complement of StdLib; it will be big and it
will attend problems that are not well-understood or whose solutions have
many differrying  approaches depending on the users’ neccessities (think
Geometry). Therefore, a correct and complete approach would inevitably have
to:
- Know the needs of all the relevant user groups and balance their
priorities.
- Contain all the important and complementary solutions.

This is very hard to achieve in a centralized system. Not impossible, but
very resource-intensive.

You can achieve something similar by letting the community grow and by
encouraging a good environment. People will the build the tools they need,
and the important voices will index the tools people use the most. That
makes them good, as well as easily findable. It’s not perfect either, but
it’s more efficient in my opinion.

— Félix Fischer
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