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: 1025b4,499ea588f6acabff X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1efdd369be089610 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: f65d0,bd4d2fccdf730b16 X-Google-Attributes: gidf65d0,public From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Subject: Re: gnat-3.10 Date: 1997/06/30 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 253709506 References: <1997Jun23.102715.1@eisner> Organization: New York University Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,gnu.gcc,gnu.misc.discuss Date: 1997-06-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Ronald says <> Right, when a production release is first made, it obviously has not been as widely used as a production release that has been made some time ago and widely used. When we first make a prerelease, those customers that want to go to the new version, to get the benefit of bug releases and new features can. Some choose to, some choose not to. Those who choose to move to the new release know that we will provide immediate help to them if there are any problems. This does not guarantee freedom from problems, but it helps to reduce the risk. For example, if there is a slight installation glitch that causes trouble on some particular hardware configuration, we can easily help anyone who runs into it, and let people know how to get around it. But a public release is a much different thing. Thousands will use it who have no access to support from us or from any one else. It is therefore much more important that public releases be glitch free, particularly when it comes to installation problems. That is why we delay making public releases until we think that all the glitches have been ironed out. Some of our customers wait until well after the public release to switch versions, which seems quite reasonable, others want to move immediately to the new release. Ronald is all upset over "what we have done to him", but all we have done to him is to tell him to wait until we think that the version is ready for public distribution. As we all know, Ronald had trouble with the 3.09 public release, perhaps that says we should have waited LONGER rathern than SHORTER to distribute 3.09, though one cannot be sure that all problems will be solved at any time. Incidentally Richard Stallman is definitely supportive of the notion of not releasing free software before it is in an appropriate state. The Linux folks have often argued that the Linux distributes should contain the latest GCC snapshots, since obviously they fix bugs, but such an attitude is not a good idea in the long run. Sure, everyone would like to be able to get the latest and greatest GNAT as early as possible, but we do not think it will help the community to have very frequent releases which have not been thoroughly user tested. We are willing to let customers have versions earlier, precisely because we know we are there to help if there are any problems. Actually Ronald's experience in failing to build from sources is a really good illustration of the problem. If Ronald had been a customer, then of course we would be spending time with him to get around the problem (whether the problem is our problem or the customer's problem is not the issue in this situation, getting around the problem *is* the only issue). On the other hand, Ronald's frustration with 3.09 is a good example of what we want to avoid happening by making sure that public releases are in good shape before they occur. This is simply a matter of quality control, which seems in our judgment to be as important for public releases of GNAT as it is for any other customer releases that we make. Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies