I think the reason there isn't even a common basic library (at this point "standard library" is a poisonous term) is there is not sufficient leadership interested in it. What I mean by leadership is:
"I'll listen to this person/these people because I trust them to make good decisions, and I know many other people do too. And they have working code."
There are at least two such projects already: stdlib and penlight, both maintained by well-respected members of the community. Maybe we should start debating the relative merits of the two very different approaches taken, as a basis for growing into the kind of community-accepted library that poeple clamour for,
