In January of this year, I spent a weekend making a video which attempted to explain the concept of Bash++ “entities” in an accessible way. It took a fair bit of effort: it was packed full of animations (which I’d never done before!) and voice-over. I was extremely proud of it, and uploaded it on Sunday night.

On Monday afternoon, I watched it back and was completely disgusted. It looked like an ad. With “branding,” a public domain “lo-fi hip hop” backing track, and a color scheme that matched the bpp.sh website.

I took it down immediately.

I have always refused to “advertise” or “promote” Bash++. On the website, there are no statements about “why you should use this language,” no insulting contrasts against other languages (which is something I’ve always thought was in very poor taste), and no marketing. The message is essentially “here’s a language if you want to use it, and have a nice day.”

And why should I advertise it? It’s not a commodity; it’s free software. If somebody wants to use it, they will, and if they don’t, they won’t. It’s not “better” than any other language – least of all Bash itself (it couldn’t even exist without Bash!). It’s just different. It exists, and that’s all.

Of course I’m gratified when people do use it (and much more so when they tell me about it), but my ego shouldn’t be a driving force behind the project. I’m not a salesman, I’m an engineer.

I would ask people to please not proselytize Bash++. The effect of proselytizing is to upset people. Think about what the person on the other end of the conversation hears when you say “you should use this language.” They hear “you’re doing things wrong.” That makes a person defensive – a violent rejection of the language, and animosity, would be very natural responses.

If you use Bash++, that’s great, and if you don’t, that’s also great. It exists, and that’s all. The point of free software is collaboration, not conflict or competition.

Let’s all get along!

Aside: development on v0.9.0 is coming along nicely. The v0.9 series is expected to be a major release.