[kovrik]

Well, this article is so thorough, detailed and well-written, that I don't know what to say other than "Wow, that was cool and very interesting!".

More stories like that?

[vkolencik]

I especially like the clever analogy with genetics. Douglas Hofstadter said something along the lines of analogy being more powerful when the two concepts it connects are otherwise very distant from each other.

[db48x]

Agreed; technical articles such as this can't come up often enough for my tastes.

I've never used ranlib; I hope the documentation can be cleaned up at least. On the other hand, anyone who has read A Deepness in the Sky will surely feel that it is unlikely in the long term.