Pretty big news for Arc-ers.

Still a pretty spartan distribution. Still no docs dir or even a README, which seems a bit strange.

Installation instructions and a tutorial are on http://arclanguage.org.

(The installation instructions currently refer to the last release, because this one isn't official yet. The tutorial seems to be current, though, because nothing that basic changed.)

Some files (besides INSTALL and TUTORIAL) you might consider including with the distribution:

* README: what it is and why

* ChangeLog

* LICENSE

* HACKING: instructions for users who might like to contribute to Arc

* FAQ: answers to questions that users keep asking about

* TODO: what you plan on working on next

Edit: Ok. Just had another look at http://www.paulgraham.com/arc0.html , specifically the part about changing stuff without even keeping track of the changes. So, I rescind my suggestion for the ChangeLog.

You also say, "full of hacks and note-to-self comments about fixing them.", so there goes the possible TODO file too. :)

It might also be beneficial to have a file or comment that explains some stuff in news.arc, specifically the admin settings for users and the site that regular users never get to see.

It would be very interesting to port the same HN source code to different languages to compare how easy to code, refactor, upgrade and maintain it is.

It would also be interesting to see how long they turned out to be. News.arc is 1990 LOC.

Sounds a bit large. Does that figure include all the support libraries for network & web -- or that you're not using any?

No, that's just what you need for News specifically. But News does more than you might think. Take a look at the source.