[baruchthescribe]

>that it would be tragic if it just slowly fades into obsolescence.

Not going to happen. Too many people have sworn to keep improving it.

[lukego]

For the LuaJIT family to die all that's necessary is for people to stop selecting it for new projects. Time takes care of the rest.

[baruchthescribe]

Sure. But when my fork with 10% more speed is released, some fairly large companies are going to choose it and it will continue.

[lukego]

Sure. But if your plan is to do all the work by yourself, for the benefit of companies who aren't contributing much beyond occasional bug fixes, then you will eventually burn out like Mike Pall did. There won't necessarily be another sucker to take your place.

For the project to have a healthy future you really need a community of user-developers who are supported by multiple organizations and cooperating and coordinating with each other. LuaJIT doesn't currently have such a community and bootstrapping one is a doosey.

[baruchthescribe]

You're right and I think more than anything, it's a function of the license. New code needs to be LGPL.