Return to freem_history.ms CVS log

Up to [Coherent Logic Development] / papers / freem_history

Annotation of papers/freem_history/freem_history.ms, revision 1.21

1.2       snw         1: \"
1.21    ! snw         2: \" $Id: freem_history.ms,v 1.20 2025/04/28 12:34:14 snw Exp $
1.2       snw         3: \"  History of FreeM
                      4: \"
                      5: \" Copyright (C) 2025 Serena Willis
                      6: \"
1.3       snw         7: \"   $Log: freem_history.ms,v $
1.21    ! snw         8: \"   Revision 1.20  2025/04/28 12:34:14  snw
        !             9: \"   Update access dates
        !            10: \"
1.20      snw        11: \"   Revision 1.19  2025/04/24 19:47:33  snw
                     12: \"   Improve abstract
                     13: \"
1.19      snw        14: \"   Revision 1.18  2025/04/24 18:54:56  snw
                     15: \"   Updates
                     16: \"
1.18      snw        17: \"   Revision 1.17  2025/04/24 18:46:33  snw
                     18: \"   Clean up refs and add ackowledgments
                     19: \"
1.17      snw        20: \"   Revision 1.16  2025/04/24 17:07:50  snw
                     21: \"   Updates
                     22: \"
1.16      snw        23: \"   Revision 1.15  2025/04/24 16:47:58  snw
                     24: \"   Reorganize document, add MUMPS language overview
                     25: \"
1.15      snw        26: \"   Revision 1.14  2025/04/24 15:33:29  snw
                     27: \"   Add table of ISC-acquired M implementations
                     28: \"
1.14      snw        29: \"   Revision 1.13  2025/04/24 01:31:13  snw
                     30: \"   Add biblio checker
                     31: \"
1.13      snw        32: \"   Revision 1.12  2025/04/23 18:59:53  snw
                     33: \"   Refine wording
                     34: \"
1.12      snw        35: \"   Revision 1.11  2025/04/23 18:58:31  snw
                     36: \"   Refine awkward paragraphing
                     37: \"
1.11      snw        38: \"   Revision 1.10  2025/04/23 18:44:26  snw
                     39: \"   Correct capitalization error in abstract
                     40: \"
1.10      snw        41: \"   Revision 1.9  2025/04/23 18:40:00  snw
                     42: \"   Improve footnotes
                     43: \"
1.9       snw        44: \"   Revision 1.8  2025/04/23 15:12:13  snw
                     45: \"   Improve wording
                     46: \"
1.8       snw        47: \"   Revision 1.7  2025/04/23 15:05:45  snw
                     48: \"   Fix typographical problems
                     49: \"
1.7       snw        50: \"   Revision 1.6  2025/04/23 13:32:34  snw
                     51: \"   Fix copyright symbol
                     52: \"
1.6       snw        53: \"   Revision 1.5  2025/04/23 13:29:37  snw
                     54: \"   Add copyright and license, shorten URLs
                     55: \"
1.5       snw        56: \"   Revision 1.4  2025/04/22 18:16:06  snw
                     57: \"   Remove references to FreeM as a database
                     58: \"
1.4       snw        59: \"   Revision 1.3  2025/04/22 17:54:09  snw
                     60: \"   Initial draft of FreeM History paper
                     61: \"
1.3       snw        62: \"   Revision 1.2  2025/04/22 14:56:22  snw
                     63: \"   Add comment header to FreeM History
1.2       snw        64: \"
1.3       snw        65: \"
1.20      snw        66: \" .R1
                     67: \" database ../references.bib
                     68: \" move-punctuation
                     69: \" .R2
1.1       snw        70: .TL
                     71: The History of FreeM
                     72: .AU
                     73: Serena Willis
                     74: .AI
                     75: Coherent Logic Development
                     76: .AB
1.20      snw        77: The history of M, as well as the specifics of FreeM\(emthe implementation maintained by the author for the last decade\(emare extensive and complex topics. Here, we will present an overview of the M language and its history in general, proceeding thence specifically to the historical background and development of FreeM itself, as well as its current status and goals. Though publicly-available information is sparse, efforts have been made to cite as many sources\*{*\*} as possible.
                     78: .FS \*{*\*}
                     79: Note that all world wide web URLs have been shortened for readability. Following these URLs will automatically redirect the reader to the appropriate, original source. All such URLs were accessed by the author on 27 April 2025, unless otherwise specified.
1.17      snw        80: .FE
1.1       snw        81: .AE
1.17      snw        82: .NH
1.19      snw        83: M LANGUAGE OVERVIEW
1.1       snw        84: .PP
1.15      snw        85: \fIMUMPS\fR\(emnow generally referred to as \fIM\fR to distance it from the infectious disease\(emis an imperative, general-purpose, command-oriented programming language supporting persistent, hierarchical, sparse arrays. It includes high-level support for multi-user, multi-processing applications with flexible concurrency control.
1.1       snw        86: .PP
1.15      snw        87: MUMPS, being an acronym for \fIM\fRassachusetts General Hospital \fIU\fRtility \fIM\fRulti-\fIP\fRrogramming \fIS\fRystem, was developed by Neil Pappalardo, Robert A. Greenes, and Curt Marble of Dr. Octo Barnett's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1966-1967.
1.3       snw        88: .[
1.15      snw        89: greenes1969
1.3       snw        90: .]
1.15      snw        91: Inspired by RAND Corporation's JOSS, and the TELCOMP and STRINGCOMP languages from Bolt, Beranek and Newman, MUMPS' earliest and most prominent use cases were in the field of health informatics.
1.3       snw        92: .[
1.15      snw        93: greenes1970
1.3       snw        94: .]
                     95: .[
1.15      snw        96: pendergrass1969
1.3       snw        97: .]
1.15      snw        98: .PP
                     99: MUMPS code is divided into program units referred to as \fIroutines\fR, which are roughly analagous to \fImodules\fR or \fIcompilation units\fR in more mainstream languages. Routines are then further divided into labels (or \fItags\fR in MUMPS parlance), which serve as entry points into the routine. Subroutines and functions (the latter known as \fIextrinsic functions\fR) are introduced as tags with an optional, parenthesized \fIformallist\fR, being a list of parameters expected by the subroutine or extrinsic function.
                    100: .PP
                    101: Perhaps the most unique feature of M, the \fIglobal\fR, is a persistent, hierarchical, sparse array allowing developers to easily implement database features directly in the application's primary development language:
                    102: .IP
                    103: .DS L
                    104: .ft C
                    105: ROUTINE ;
                    106:   SET ^PEOPLE("Willis, Serena","DOB")="1980-12-01"
                    107:   SET ^PEOPLE("Willis, Serena","SEX")="F"
                    108:   SET ^PEOPLE("Willis, Serena","COUNTRY")="US" 
                    109: .ft
                    110: .PP
                    111: The above routine would be called with \fIDO ^ROUTINE\fR, resulting in a data structure in fixed storage where the elements (known in M parlance as \fIsubscripts\fR), i.e., \fI"Willis, Serena"\fR, are automatically sorted on insertion, allowing for rapid retrieval. Rough analogues can be found in the \fIPICK\fR operating system, as well as BBN \fIFILECOMP\fR, the latter of which was a direct influence in the early development of M.
                    112: .KS
                    113: .PP
                    114: Early versions of M included \fIMGH MUMPS\fR from Massachusetts General Hospital, and \fIDigital Standard MUMPS\fR from Digital Equipment Corporation. Notably, early commercial versions of M were commercial software, somewhat limiting the language's spread outside of its ecological niche of health informatics.
1.16      snw       115: .TS
                    116: center tab(#);
                    117: Cb Cb
                    118: L L.
                    119: Vendor#Implementation
                    120: Mass. General Hospital#MGH MUMPS
                    121: Digital Equipment Corp.#Digital Standard MUMPS (DSM)
                    122: InterSystems Corp.#InterSystems Standard MUMPS (ISM), Open M, Cache, IRIS Data Platform
                    123: Data Tree#Data Tree MUMPS (DTM)
                    124: Micronetics#Micronetics Standard MUMPS (MSM)
                    125: Patterson & Gray#PSM-11, PSM-32, PSM-V
                    126: MGlobal International Inc.#CCSM, MacMUMPS, M Global MUMPS, M3 Lite
                    127: U.C. Davis#MicroMUMPS
                    128: Ray Newman#MUMPS V1
                    129: Fourth Watch Software LC#Reference Standard M (RSM)
                    130: Kevin O'Kane#Mumps-II, Open Mumps, GPL Mumps
                    131: M21 Ltd.#M21
                    132: Fidelity National Information Services#GT.M (Greystone Technology MUMPS)
                    133: YottaDB#YottaDB
                    134: Eugene Karataev#MiniM
                    135: .TE
                    136: .CD
                    137: .SM
                    138: \fIFigure 1. Partial list of M implementations.\fR
                    139: .NL
                    140: .LD
1.15      snw       141: .KE
1.17      snw       142: .NH
                    143: EARLY HISTORY OF FREEM
1.1       snw       144: .PP
1.3       snw       145: FreeM was developed in Germany in the mid-1990s by a developer who went by the pseudonym \fIShalom ha-Ashkenaz\fR, whose actual identity remains unknown,
                    146: .[
1.9       snw       147: walters99
                    148: %P 19
1.3       snw       149: .]
1.14      snw       150: though it is thought by some that they are a dentist who learned C and developed FreeM on their own time. Shalom developed FreeM at a time when InterSystems Corporation (the company that developed the ISM implementation of M) was acquiring the majority of its competitors and absorbing their technology into their \fIOpen M\fR product, which would later become \fIInterSystems Cache\fR.
1.3       snw       151: .[
1.9       snw       152: ibid
                    153: %P 18
1.3       snw       154: .]
1.14      snw       155: .KS
                    156: .TS
                    157: center tab(#);
                    158: Cb Cb
                    159: L L.
                    160: Implementation#Year
                    161: DataTree MUMPS (DTM)#1993
                    162: Digital Standard MUMPS (DSM)#1995
                    163: .[
                    164: dsmAcquisition
                    165: .]
                    166: Micronetics Standard MUMPS (MSM)#1998
                    167: .TE
                    168: .CD
                    169: .SM
1.16      snw       170: \fIFigure 2. M implementations absorbed by InterSystems Corp.\fR
1.14      snw       171: .NL
                    172: .LD
                    173: .KE
1.15      snw       174: .PP
1.13      snw       175: Shalom wished to provide a community-driven, open-source implementation of M as a bulwark against the growing threat of single-vendor hegemony over the M language. Its design\(emas well as some of the documentation included with the original sources\(emindicate that FreeM was originally targeted to the MS-DOS family of operating systems. It made use of a very limited subset of the C library, and included instructions for renaming the MS-DOS style 8.3 filenames in order to compile under UNIX.
1.3       snw       176: .[
                    177: freemREADME
                    178: .]
1.5       snw       179: .KS
1.3       snw       180: .PP
                    181: At one point in FreeM's early history, Shalom ported FreeM from MS-DOS to SCO UNIX, the UNIX System V Release III-derived descendant of Microsoft XENIX, now known as SCO OpenServer\(ema platform still supported by FreeM today.
                    182: .[
                    183: portSCO
                    184: .]
                    185: This port brought support for the \fIscoansi\fR terminal type, including colors and ANSI X3.64 control mnemonics.
1.5       snw       186: .KE
1.17      snw       187: .NH
                    188: INITIAL INVOLVEMENT
1.15      snw       189: .PP
                    190: The author's mentor in computer programming and UNIX was Lawrence Landis, who involved himself heavily in the M programming language ca. 1991. Mr. Landis promoted the M language to the author from 1991 forward, and first demonstrated FreeM to her in August 1998. In 2010, the author incorporated her company, Coherent Logic Development, learned M, and began doing contract work in M through Mr. Landis's company, Fourth Watch Software.
                    191: .PP
                    192: Mr. Landis was the owner of FreeM's SourceForge repository
                    193: .[
                    194: gumpSF
                    195: .]
                    196: , which had not been touched in a number of years, following Fidelity National Information Services' decision to release GT.M under a free software license. In August 2011, the author downloaded the source code for FreeM and did enough work on it to enable building and running under modern GNU/Linux systems and posted it to the \fImumpster.org\fR forums.
                    197: .[
                    198: freem014
                    199: .]
                    200: .PP
                    201: In 2014, Mr. Landis gave the author administrator access to the FreeM SourceForge repository and transferred maintainership of the project to her.
                    202: .[
                    203: gumpSF
                    204: .]
1.17      snw       205: .NH
                    206: GENERIC UNIVERSAL M PROJECT
1.1       snw       207: .PP
1.5       snw       208: The \fIGeneric Universal M Project\fR was conceived by Richard F. Walters, a professor from U.C. Davis. The GUMP, following the rising popularity of object-oriented programming in the 1990s, was intended to be a toolkit allowing M implementations to be built from discrete components with a well-defined and well-specified public interface among these components. These components included the global handler (supplying the functionality of persistent global storage), and the interpreter/compiler (responsible for implementing M language commands). The components would have been able to communicate over a network, or in-process on the same host, enabling distributed computing functionality.
1.3       snw       209: .[
                    210: c2m
                    211: .]
                    212: .PP
                    213: Although the specification for the GUM interface to global handlers attained a reasonably well-specified level of completeness,
                    214: .[
                    215: gumapi
                    216: .]
1.9       snw       217: and Lawrence Landis and others developed a mostly-complete implementation of a GUM global handler,
1.3       snw       218: .[
                    219: gumpsrc
                    220: .]
                    221: none of the other envisioned components were ever completed, and specifically, the interpreter component was missing.
1.17      snw       222: .NH
                    223: FREEM DONATED TO MUG DEUTSCHLAND
1.1       snw       224: .PP
1.5       snw       225: In July of 1998, Shalom ha-Ashkenaz donated the FreeM source code (then known as FreeMUMPS) to the M User's Group-Deutschland (MUG-D), hoping the community would take the nascent implementation from its infancy through to a state of production-ready completeness and robustness. Shalom also placed a few conditions on his gift: a public release could not be made until a substantial set of milestones were reached. Per his conditions, the FreeMUMPS project must:
1.3       snw       226: .[
                    227: freemREADME
                    228: .]
1.1       snw       229: .IP \(bu 2
                    230: Implement the entirety of \fIANSI X11.1-1995\fR
                    231: .IP \(bu 2
                    232: Use Structured System Variables instead of \fIVIEW\fR commands and \fI$VIEW\fR functions
                    233: .IP \(bu 2
                    234: Raise the string size limits
                    235: .IP \(bu 2
                    236: Implement MWAPI, OMI, X11 bindings, and GKS bindings
                    237: .IP \(bu 2
                    238: Be substantially free of major bugs
                    239: .PP
                    240: Although MUG-D readily accepted the contribution of FreeMUMPS, the organization itself lacked the manpower and expertise to complete the implementation. Just as it is now, the intersection of M community members who know enough of the M language and C language to work on a project this ambitious was quite small.
1.17      snw       241: .NH
                    242: MERGING GUMP AND FREEM
1.1       snw       243: .PP
1.5       snw       244: Very shortly after the contribution of FreeMUMPS to MUG-D, Richard F. Walters and a small team of developers and administrative staff who had been working on the GUMP assumed maintainership of the FreeMUMPS source code, with Lawrence Landis managing the development efforts.
1.3       snw       245: .[
1.9       snw       246: shortWalters99
                    247: %P 19
1.3       snw       248: .]
                    249: This included representatives from the \fIM Technology Association\fR (an M vendor association having several foreign branches), the \fIM Development Committee\fR (the M standards organization hosting the ANSI/ISO standards for the M language, then sponsored by the M Technology Association), and others.
                    250: .[
                    251: freemContributors
                    252: .]
                    253: The goals of this team were to:
1.1       snw       254: .IP \(bu 2
                    255: Meet Shalom's requirements for a public release of FreeMUMPS
                    256: .IP \(bu 2
                    257: Convert FreeMUMPS into the first interpreter component of the GUMP
                    258: .PP
1.5       snw       259: During this period, Ronald L. Fox of Diagnostic Laboratory Services in Honolulu, HI (who passed in 2010)
1.3       snw       260: .[
                    261: ronFoxGrave
                    262: .]
                    263: ported FreeMUMPS from SCO UNIX to Red Hat 5 and glibc-6.
                    264: .[
                    265: ronFoxPort
                    266: .]
                    267: Steve "Saintly" Zeck of the U.C. Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
                    268: .[
                    269: saintlyBio
                    270: .]
                    271: also attempted to rewrite the symbol table code to lift string size limits,
                    272: .[
                    273: saintlySymtab
                    274: .]
1.8       snw       275: David Whitten enhanced some of the implementation-specific extensions, and Lawrence Landis integrated Zeck's symbol table work.
1.3       snw       276: .PP
1.5       snw       277: In FreeM 0.1.0, the name of the implementation was changed from FreeMUMPS to Public Standard M, and again to Free Standard MUMPS and then FreeM when it was discovered leading up to the FreeM 0.2.0 release that the PSM acronym was already in use for Patterson & Gray's
1.3       snw       278: .[
1.18      snw       279: m_implementations
1.3       snw       280: .]
                    281: M implementation.
                    282: .[
                    283: Changes.GUM
                    284: .]
                    285: Dr. Walters also received the implementation ID of 49 from then secretary of the M Development Committee, Don Piccone.
                    286: .[
1.9       snw       287: ibid
1.3       snw       288: .]
1.1       snw       289: .PP
1.5       snw       290: One of the contributors to FreeM at this stage\(emprimarily in the area of M vendor routines\(emwas Axel Trocha, who would later maintain a private fork of FreeM.
1.3       snw       291: .[
                    292: trochaFork
                    293: .]
1.17      snw       294: .NH
                    295: GT.M RELEASED AS FREE SOFTWARE
1.1       snw       296: .PP
                    297: GT.M, an acronym for \fIGreystone Technology MUMPS\fR, is an M implementation that was released by Greystone Technology in 1986. Greystone was later acquired by Sanchez Computer Associates, which was in turn acquired by Fidelity National Information Services.
1.3       snw       298: .[
                    299: fisSanchezAcquisition
                    300: .]
1.18      snw       301: .KS
1.3       snw       302: .PP
                    303: When GT.M was released under the GNU General Public License in 2000,
                    304: .[
                    305: gtmRelease
                    306: .]
1.21    ! snw       307: it seemed to many to obviate the \fIraison d'etre\fR for FreeM, as GT.M was a well-established, robust, and high-performance M implementation with which FreeM could not then compete. Unfortunately, at this time, the GUMP and FreeM projects lost all of their momentum, and new development along these lines rapidly ceased. The final GUMP team release of FreeM was 0.5.0.
1.3       snw       308: .[
                    309: freem050
                    310: .]
                    311: However, Axel Trocha's private port would continue to be developed for some years.
1.7       snw       312: .KE
1.17      snw       313: .NH
                    314: FORKED BY AXEL TROCHA
1.1       snw       315: .PP
1.11      snw       316: When the free software release of GT.M stalled the GUMP team's progress on the primary branch of development, Axel Trocha, an aforementioned contributor, continued development on the FreeM source code. Trocha added many interesting features to the FreeM codebase, including:
1.1       snw       317: .IP \(bu 2
                    318: A native port to Microsoft Windows
                    319: .IP \(bu 2
                    320: Compiling FreeM as an Apache web server module, allowing FreeM to be used easily for web development
                    321: .IP \(bu 2
                    322: The ability to output HTML code in a heredoc-style format, with any line of code beginning with a left angle bracket being interpreted as HTML with support for interpolated M locals and globals
                    323: .IP \(bu 2
                    324: Extensions allowing FreeM to be used as a command-line shell, along the lines of UNIX \fIbash\fR, Windows \fIcmd.exe\fR, etc.
                    325: .PP
1.5       snw       326: Trocha also maintains ownership of the \fIfreem.net\fR Internet domain,
1.3       snw       327: .[
                    328: trochaDomain
                    329: .]
1.21    ! snw       330: and continued issuing public releases of his FreeM port on that site until sometime after 2004, at which point this fork was made entirely private. Currently, freem.net is a blank page. However, Trocha's fork of FreeM continues to the present
        !           331: .[
        !           332: trochaEmail
        !           333: .]
        !           334: as the back-end storage engine and programming environment for the \fIElven Runes\fR website.
1.3       snw       335: .[
                    336: elvenRunes
                    337: .]
1.5       snw       338: The author has communicated with Mr. Trocha on occasion, and though he is supportive of the author's efforts, has chosen to remain in the background.
1.17      snw       339: .NH
                    340: RESUMING PRIMARY DEVELOPMENT
1.1       snw       341: .PP
                    342: In 2011, the author downloaded the FreeM source code from the GUM Project's SourceForge repository\(emdormant since 2000\(emand updated it just enough that it would compile and run on modern GNU/Linux systems. The author also quickly updated FreeM to support terminal sizes larger than 80x24.
1.17      snw       343: .NH
                    344: TAKING MAINTAINERSHIP
1.1       snw       345: .PP
1.5       snw       346: In 2014, Lawrence Landis transferred administrative access of the GUMP repository, conferring maintainership of the primary branch of FreeM development to the author. Since then, many features have been added and many bugs corrected, including:
1.3       snw       347: .IP \(bu 2
                    348: Adding support for proper namespaces, configured through a \fIfreem.conf\fR file, which standardizes routine and global storage locations
                    349: .IP \(bu 2
                    350: Adding support for Structured System Variables
                    351: .IP \(bu 2
                    352: Adding support for the asynchronous event specification from MDC Type A proposal \fIX11/1998-28\fR
                    353: .[
                    354: x119828
                    355: .]
                    356: .IP \(bu 2
                    357: Adding support for constants via the \fICONST\fR keyword
                    358: .IP \(bu 2
                    359: Adding a \fIWITH\fR command allowing the specification of an implicit prefix to all subsequent variable references
                    360: .IP \(bu 2
                    361: Adding a runtime \fIWATCH\fR command, tracking changes to specified local or global variables
                    362: .IP \(bu 2
                    363: Adding an \fIASSERT\fR command, which will fail with an error message if the following expression evaluates \fIfalse\fR
                    364: .IP \(bu 2
                    365: Removing the Steve Zeck symbol table implementation\(emwhich was unreliable\(emand reverting to the original implementation
                    366: .IP \(bu 2
                    367: Adding support for the GNU \fIreadline\fR library, with persistent command line history and editing
                    368: .IP \(bu 2
                    369: Adding REPL-like functionality (in direct mode, any M expression beginning with a number will be prepended with an implicit \fIWRITE\fR)
                    370: .IP \(bu 2
                    371: Adding transaction processing
                    372: .IP \(bu 2
                    373: Adding \fIKVALUE\fR and \fIKSUBSCRIPTS\fR
                    374: .IP \(bu 2
                    375: Preparing to support the \fIM Windowing API\fR (MWAPI)
                    376: .IP \(bu 2
                    377: Adding the \fIfmadm\fR command-line utility, for system administration functions
                    378: .IP \(bu 2
                    379: Adding support for after-image journaling and forward recovery of globals
1.5       snw       380: .KS
1.3       snw       381: .IP \(bu 2
                    382: Writing a \fItexinfo\fR manual, from which the HTML manual is derived
                    383: .IP \(bu 2
                    384: Porting to Solaris/SPARC, Solaris/x86, Linux/s390x, Linux/armv6l, Linux/armv7l, SCO OpenServer 5.0.7, Tru64 UNIX/alpha, AIX/ppc, Mac OS X/x86, GNU HURD, Cygwin, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and WSL1/2
1.11      snw       385: 
1.5       snw       386: In addition, the FreeM web site
1.3       snw       387: .[
                    388: freemWebsite
                    389: .]
                    390: was created, to distribute downloads and documentation.
1.5       snw       391: .KE
1.17      snw       392: .NH
                    393: FUTURE
1.3       snw       394: .PP
1.5       snw       395: FreeM is envisioned as a client-oriented desktop M implementation, for developing graphical user interfaces that will run on mobile and desktop devices.
1.3       snw       396: .PP
                    397: The author also intends to adopt the original vision of the GUMP team, dividing FreeM's functionality into discrete components having a well-specified public interface, with the ability to run in distributed computing environments over a network.
                    398: .PP
                    399: FreeM's mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in M implementations, and push the evolution of the language forward. Maintaining portability to as many vintage and modern UNIX systems as possible is held as a high priority, while portability of M routines and MDC standards compliance will be maintained through the use of the new \fI$ZDIALECT\fR intrinsic special variable to ensure that such compliance does not conflict with the primary goal of elegantly advancing the state-of-the-art and finding new audiences for the concepts originated by Neil Pappalardo and Octo Barnett in 1966.
                    400: .PP
                    401: The FreeM project is also strongly committed to free software principles, and is firmly aligned with the goals of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, believing that the ethical concerns surrounding proprietary software are at least as important as the practical concerns espoused by the Open Source movement.
                    402: .[
                    403: whyFreeSoftware
                    404: .]
1.17      snw       405: .NH
                    406: CONCLUSION
1.5       snw       407: .PP
1.7       snw       408: FreeM has seen a colorful and turbulent history, touched by many capable hands. Though public development of any strain of the implementation was dormant for nearly a decade, fourteen years of almost continuous development have passed since the project resumed in 2011, and a decade since official maintainership passed in 2014, and great progress has been made.
                    409: .PP
                    410: FreeM\(emas is the case for all M projects\(empresses forward in a period where the future of the M programming language is uncertain. M Development Committee efforts concurrent with FreeM development have been sporadic and have missed many milestones, the community's most prominent members are aging, and many organizations have migrated from large M applications to what is perceived as more "modern" replacements.
                    411: .PP
                    412: It is the opinion of the author that the tight integration of an expressive and dynamic language with a robust and performant persistent storage engine makes M a natural candidate for many new and general applications. Modern application development is plagued by overwhelming bars to entry, requiring mastery of many languages and database management systems and the bulky interfaces connecting them.
                    413: .PP
1.11      snw       414: Though not without significant warts accreted over the years, M has no such overhead. Thus, FreeM seeks to press its philosophical advantages by mitigating the language's accumulated cruft, and adding clean interfaces addressing the needs of today. With these goals in mind, development proceeds apace.
1.18      snw       415: .KS
1.20      snw       416: \" .NH
                    417: \" ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
                    418: \" .PP
                    419: \" Certainly, the intellects responsible for giving us M are too numerous to mention by name, but their importance cannot be overstated. The author would like to especially credit Lawrence Landis for his early and innumerable contributions to her development, both generally as a practitioner of software development, and specifically for introducing her to the M programming language, and inculcating in her a love of exploration and innovation.
                    420: \" .PP
                    421: \" Thanks are due also to David Wicksell, for countless hours of collaboration on FreeM spanning more than a decade, and for providing ideas and inspiration.
                    422: \" .PP
                    423: \" I would also like to thank Ken McGlothlen of Vista Expertise Network for his efforts in editing multiple drafts of this paper.
                    424: \" .PP
                    425: \" Finally, to my wife, Miriam\(ema brilliant technologist in her own right\(emand daughters, without whose inestimable patience and understanding as the author buries herself in countless passion projects, such projects would not be possible.
                    426: \" .KE
1.7       snw       427: .KS
1.17      snw       428: .NH
                    429: COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
1.5       snw       430: .LP
1.6       snw       431: This document is Copyright \[co] 2025 Serena Willis
1.5       snw       432: .LP
                    433: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
                    434: .[
                    435: gfdl
                    436: .]
                    437: Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. 
                    438: .LP
1.21    ! snw       439: \fI$Id: freem_history.ms,v 1.20 2025/04/28 12:34:14 snw Exp $\fR
1.7       snw       440: .KE