Re: Towards a free GNU Ada

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <5ps4eg$bo1@kiwi.ics.uci.edu>, fielding@kiwi.ics.uci.edu (Roy T. Fielding) writes:
> [regarding the notion of a publically maintained problem tracking system
> for GNAT] dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> 
>>This might appeal to the hobbyists in the Ada community who are happy to
>>fiddle with a stream of uncoordinated and insufficiently tested patches,
>>but it would be inimical to the interests of the wider Ada community
>>that needs reliable products. The need for reliability extends both
>>to paying customers, and perhaps even more to those who rely on free
>>public versions, which they must use without much support.

It seems to me that what you quote from Robert, and what you say in reply,
(mostly not quoted here), goes not to the issue of a "publically maintained
problem tracking system" but rather some sort of volunteer bugfix exchange.

Those two are worlds apart.  Please do not tar the notion of a "publically
maintained problem tracking system" with the same brush of practicality
debates as a bugfix exchange.  Note that a problem tracking system can
work for multiple Ada products, with no regard to whether sources are
public.

Larry Kilgallen