You are right. But I think the point that the author makes is that pure(or almost pure) open source project will have only "interesting" contribution, where as by far what makes a programming language usable are those "unglamorous" fundamental things.
Yes, whoever contributes can choose whatever they wanted to contribute. But most successful project, companies or startup or anything else for that matter, involves doing things that most people would rather do, but necessary.
When you choose a programming language for your business, your business/life or anything related to it will depends on the language. I think its fair for anyone to choose a language to make sure those necessary boring stuff are robust in the language.
Those who contribute can choose what to contribute. Those who consume, can choose what they want to consume. Probably all of us have been on both side of the fence, so I would say its a fair assessment.
In this case the OP's point is moot because every single one of his gripes is being addressed by Typesafe, the company that is backing Scala. They have a team working on the Eclipse plugin. They have recently released a new documentation site. They are addressing binary compatibility with the Migration Manager. etc.
Yes, whoever contributes can choose whatever they wanted to contribute. But most successful project, companies or startup or anything else for that matter, involves doing things that most people would rather do, but necessary.
When you choose a programming language for your business, your business/life or anything related to it will depends on the language. I think its fair for anyone to choose a language to make sure those necessary boring stuff are robust in the language.
Those who contribute can choose what to contribute. Those who consume, can choose what they want to consume. Probably all of us have been on both side of the fence, so I would say its a fair assessment.