Paul Murphy writes some very nice words about Cocoon:
I have one overwhelming reaction to the difference between Cocoon then, and Cocoon now. Fundamentally it seems to have evolved from science experiment to professional product - there is now a clarity of purpose and design simplicity that promises to make it a joy to work with.
[…] I haven’t downloaded and started up the new Cocoon technologies yet, but it’s clear from the documentation, demonstration sites, and sample code that they’ve gone in the opposite direction: from a scattergun agenda including ritual bowing to market realities (like com) to a clear focus on doing one job as well as possible at each stage in a pipelined processing framework. Looking at it, I’d guess Doug McIlroy in particular, but also Thompson, Ritchie, and the other original Unix creators, would be proud to see one of their core ideas carried forward and expressed so well in a working application.
Thanks Mr. Murphy. We’re glad that you like Cocoon, even though the design is not exactly the simplest possible one, to be honest. I would love to expand on this, but having risen at 4AM to board a plane, I’m not in the right state of mind to do a longish blog post. Maybe later.
