For years I am watching Haiku’s progress and shaping. I do this rather distantly, maybe because is not easy for me to follow some really strange discussions in English language, often targeting very far topics like linux, strange development languages etc…
It could give new motivation for me and others to develop within Haiku, if (best inside a beta release):
a) officially recommend one stable development environment: a kind of an IDE, modern compiler and library
b) officially recommend C++ as the best supported Haiku development language
c) enhance Haiku public relations by announcing Haiku to be a performant, stable and free C++ development platform
d) have a yearly programmers competition to win a relevant amount of money from the raised Haiku programmers’ fund for writing a genuine Haiku application
I know that I have, personally, created two posts that mention Linux and a “strange development language” (Python). Sorry if I’ve caused any discouragement! I would never want to discourage anyone from participating.
I like your ideas. I think it’s a great idea to keep everything simple – at least from an “Official” perspective. I’ve seen several comments where people appreciate the centralized state that Haiku currently is in.
A & B
C++ is probably already the de-facto, if not openly stated, official language for development on Haiku. After all, the entire API is written in C++ – as well as the development documentation.
I’m not sure about an idea on the IDE. Would it be a new IDE branded by Haiku? Or would it be an existing IDE just recommended by Haiku?
I completely agree with using a modern compiler and library. Unfortunately, the decision is well out of my hands and so much work has been put into it that I’m sure the developers (the ones actually doing all of the work we’re just enjoying) don’t want to see it wasted. I only want to see modern and simplicity to make their lives easier – and mine when I can make time for some Haiku development.
C
I am not sure they can announce that Haiku as stable. It’s an Alpha release. Otherwise, I think they make it pretty clear on their ‘about’ page that it is very responsive and performs well.
As far as being a C++ development platform … I’m not quite sure I know what that means. If you mean that it’s a great platform constructed in C++ and uses C++ as the standard language, then I think that’s already a given – but probably understated. If you mean that it’s a great environment to program in C++ and build for other environments (outside of Haiku) then I, unfortunately, don’t think that would go so well.
D
This could be valuable – as long as the competitors knew which applications Haiku users wanted/needed the most and the users understood the scope of the competition (and the developer’s time/capabilities).