From: mental@...
Date: 2006-01-29T00:31:52+09:00
Subject: Re: About rant on Dave Thomas site, titled 'imitation...'

Quoting Dave Thomas <Dave@PragProg.com>:

> It's that these copies miss the point: Rails works because it is
> integrated so well into Ruby. If you want to create frameworks for
> other languages, don't start by copying Rails. Instead, understand
> _why_ Rails works, then see what your target language has to offer
> and innovate with that.

Perhaps that is true, but imitation is often a prerequisite for new
understanding.

It's the reason why any serious art curriculum will have its
students copying masterworks at some point.

Imitation is scaffolding.

-mental