From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,88ed72d98e6b3457 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-16 05:55:19 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.uchicago.edu!yellow.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!newsfeed1.easynews.com!easynews.com!easynews!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F8E9531.9040209@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Standard Library Interest? References: <3F7F760E.2020901@comcast.net> <3F8035B0.7080902@noplace.com> <3F816A35.4030108@noplace.com> <3F81FBEC.9010103@noplace.com> <6Ingb.30667$541.13861@nwrdny02.gnilink.net> <3F82B4A4.5060301@noplace.com> <3F82F527.3020101@noplace.com> <3F846B5E.9080502@comcast.net> <3F855460.6020804@noplace.com> <3F86211B.103@comcast.net> <3F8640CA.6090306@noplace.com> <3F881515.4060305@noplace.com> <6lijb.140205$%h1.139381@sccrnsc02> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 12:55:18 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.25.170 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1066308918 209.165.25.170 (Thu, 16 Oct 2003 05:55:18 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 05:55:18 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:972 Date: 2003-10-16T12:55:18+00:00 List-Id: Right. I can see that and anticipat that objection on the part of the vendors. But at the end of the day, you are not going to get something for nothing. We could jam a whole gigantic library into the standard and they'd have to support it or admit they don't have a "Full" Ada compiler. (I've already observed why we *don't* want it in the standard, but assume for a minute it was there in order to *force* the vendors into providing it.) They could each pay the cost of building that huge library and each pay the cost of supporting that library and each suffer individually. ***OR*** The vendors could work as a team on this and share the expense. Form up some sort of organization to take care of the library and support it. It comes from a single source and they could relatively easily point any customer support issues to that source. Its even conceivable that the organization they start could become self-sustaining - generating revenue out of their own support contracts or software sales or royalties or whatever else they might provide. Here's the thing: Nobody is going to ge a Conventional Ada Library free. *Someone* is going to bear the cost of producing it and maintaining it. Even if that "Someone" is a bunch of volunteers. If you want to have reasonable control over the library and get it done on a schedule and have it meet various expectations, that's going to cost something. However, that doesn't mean the cost has to be huge or back-breaking for each vendor. Some sort of cooperative effort and creative licensing might enable it to get constructed and supported without having to incur huge costs. MDC Mark A. Biggar wrote: > > > The other issue that the vendors will have is the support issue. If > they distribute it, then they will have to provide some level of support > for it, if only training their support people on how to say "distributed > as is, we don't support it". And vendor don't like to do that, as it > causes "Good Will" problems with their customers. > > So even if you have the best thing sense Turing machines, some vendors > may not distribute it, because they don't see any benefit in the > increase in support costs. > > Anything that isn't in the standard can have this problem. > -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g "All reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for." --Logan Pearsall Smith ======================================================================