two decades of gnu mdk

I've just published GNU MDK 1.3.0, its 28th release, which finally migrates MDK's graphical user interface to GTK+ 3, to keep up with the, ahem, not-so-modern times and see to it that MDK keeps alive for at least another decade or two.

Twenty years ago on this day, the first version of MDK 0.1 was released. Back then, it didn't have an Emacs or graphical interface¹, support for internationalization or any integration with Guile, and the debugger was really bare bones (it still is, but not that much). It wasn't yet a GNU package. But all those things, and then more, came in rapid succession, as i used the project to discover the Free Software world, both at a technical and a human level.

As a physicist out of grad school, i wasn't young, but i was just starting in the world of software and everything was fresh and new and exciting. I remember the thrill of receiving emails from total strangers willing to help and offering insightful advice (hi there, Philip King, wherever you are these days), and of thinking that someone else, out there, was finding my little program fun and useful². Or of exchanging messages with RMS, that guy i had read about in Hackers and admired so much; and then see in the process MDK entering the GNU umbrella. And of seeing it shortly afterwards on Knuth's own page on TAOCP, up there in the MIXware list.

MDK was my first project developed entirely in Emacs running on Debian (twenty years ago, that felt bolder than it sounds now), two constant companions up to ths day. Seeing it as a maintained Debian package was another big satisfaction and milestone for memory lane.

I also have vivid recollections of the mind-bending experience of discovering Scheme, because i learnt that Guile was the extension language of choice for GNU, and my baby steps on writing a lexer or an interpreter, and how humbled i felt when i took a proper compilers course a few years later and looked back at my clumsily rediscovered wheels³.

MDK was also my gateway to publishing a book for the first time, thanks to the nice guys of the GNU Press, with a polished version of its manual. Okay, it's more of a booklet, and out of press by now, but it was an enriching experience nonetheless; for instance i got a chance of seeing an editor in action.

After two decades, having grown older and bitter, all those things look small and of little importance, but as a freshman i truly had the best of times. I think that maybe the most important thing i learned was to collaborate with other people, and i've since been always very fond of the kindness of strangers, and how much one can learn from them.

Anyway, here's to the next twenty years. Happy hacking!