Re: Yearly Fees for Support of Compiler

[eachus@largo.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)]

In article <2222@ac17.cs.nps.navy.mil> nash@ac17.cs.nps.navy.mil (david nash) writes:

   I disagree with Mr. Taft's point of view.  In my mind, reputable companies
   that market software make an implicit promise of correctness to would-be
   buyers.  The gentleman to whom Mr. Taft responded was suggesting that they
   provide bug fixes without payment, not enhanced features.

   I totally disagree when it comes to compilers, no one who knows
what they are talking about will make any promise of "correctness." In
fact, any compiler expert will guarentee that ANY compiler that you
buy will have bugs in it, and in fact will have some errors which
can't be proven to be errors!  (If you don't understand whence this
comes read Godel, Escher, Bach... and apply the incompleteness theorem
to compilers.)  So, many times, the effect of "support" is known to be
that "fixing" the compiler so that user X can compile his program,
means that some user Y will be complaining later that the new version
of the compiler won't compile his old source file!


					Robert I. Eachus

with STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
use  STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
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					Robert I. Eachus

with STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
use  STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
function MESSAGE (TEXT: in CLEVER_IDEAS) return BETTER_IDEAS is...