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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,88b676af04f3073d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Jonathan Guthrie Subject: Re: Ada generics are bad Date: 1998/04/15 Message-ID: <6h187p$3go$1@news.hal-pc.org>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 344170167 References: <6gm6jc$fbp@newshub.atmnet.net> <6gs5qa$s46@newshub.atmnet.net> <3533d2b3.81874922@news.mindspring.com> Organization: Information Broker Systems Internet Services Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In comp.lang.ada Robert Munck wrote: > On Mon, 13 Apr 1998 00:58:23 -0700, matthew_heaney@acm.org (Matthew > Heaney) wrote: > >... If there's a problem, and I have the source, then at > >least I can fix it; ... > Nonsense. You fix a "broken" feature so that it works the way > you want it to, and then the developer comes out with a new > release in which that feature either stays the way it was or > is changed to work a different way. Now what do you do? "Fix" > it again? Change all of you existing documents that use that > feature of the app? Either way, you end up spending all of > your time fixing all of your application packages. Actually, the third option is the one we take. We ignore the new release. Since "free software" means never having to upgrade, we don't need to bear the burden of an operating system that has to be upgraded at someone else's whim. We can continue to use "old, but working fine" forever. If a newer version of some software provides a feature that we feel is important, then we evaluate the cost of performing the upgrade and compare that to the expected benefits of performing the upgrade and make an informed decision about OUR needs, not the needs of some marketing VP whose revenues are a little short for the quarter. What we give up for this freedom to use what we choose is the so-called "support" that people try to get from the major software companies. If I have a package that basically works, and I have the source (for those times when it does not) I don't need support. -- Jonathan Guthrie (jguthrie@brokersys.com) Information Broker Systems +281-895-8101 http://www.brokersys.com/ 12703 Veterans Memorial #106, Houston, TX 77014, USA We sell Internet access and commercial Web space. We also are general network consultants in the greater Houston area.