Re: Containers with Ada

["Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com>]

Stephen Leake wrote:

> "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@home.com> writes:
>
> > Stephen Leake wrote:
> >
> > > Brian Rogoff <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com> writes:
> ...snip...

> > > Someone looking to create an Ada library should make an attempt to
> > > find out what's already been done. Then they can either just use it,
> > > or improve on it, or start from scratch. In any case, we'll all learn
> > > something (if they tell us :).
> >
> > There are other factors that must be considered before using an
> > EXISTING package:
> >
> >   1. -  Who controls its design and interface?
> >   2. -  Is it likely to undergo changes in the future?
> >   3. -  How stable are the various existing releases of this package out there?
>
> All good points.
>
> >   <snip discussion of various solutions>
>
> Perhaps a better solution for open source packages is to distribute
> exactly the version you test with (which you may have patched), with
> the caveat that users who use other versions are on their own.

Certainly, that is one solution. For large packages like florist however,
distributing that with a small application goes against the grain, especially
for the user who downloads with 56k modems.

> That's one of the beauties of open source; you can insulate yourself
> from all the maintenance issues just by distributing the version of
> the source you happened to use.

Yes, with the above disadvantage noted.  Sometimes, it is possible just
to extract the pieces you need. However, that is not always easy, or even
advisable.

> I would hope you would make an effort to contribute fixes and upgrade
> to later versions, but there's really no need to require your users to
> do that on their own!
>
> --
> -- Stephe

You don't specifically indicate what I should perform "fixes and upgrade
to later versions" for, but I'll assume that you mean my own contributed
applications. If so, then yes indeed. However, some balance is required
here however.

My goal for written applications, is to be the "May Tag repair man". I want to
be able to move onto _NEW_ projects, since time is a limited resource.  If I
must keep revisiting an application that does not need enhancing, just to
make it compile and work again, I get rather annoyed (when the change is
seemingly unnecessary).

It's an imperfect world, so I accept the reality that changes are sometimes
required. But IMHO, it should be possible most of the time to build applications
without making a career out of it ;-)

--
Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
http://members.home.net/ve3wwg