Dependence on externals

[Richmond Mathewson]

is not, ultimately, a good solution to limitations of RunRev as
a software producer should be able to produce a single
package that can be compiled to run on any target platform.

The problem about externals (whether 'externals' as understood
in the xTalk universe, or external applications leveraged by a stack)
is that they tend to be platform specific (font embedding comes
to mind - Mac and Win, but no Web or Linux).

Apple and Microsoft have shown a tendency to "pinch" ideas
that others have produced as external add-ons to Macintosh
and Windows and roll them into the next OS release. While this
may be morally reprehensible one can see the reasoning
behind it. Obviously the price is that the OS s get bigger and
bigger and eat more and more RAM; hence the downsizing
that is going on with Mac 10.6 and Windows 7