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: f65d0,bd4d2fccdf730b16 X-Google-Attributes: gidf65d0,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1efdd369be089610 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Subject: Re: gnat-3.10 Date: 1997/07/01 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 253856328 References: Organization: New York University Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,gnu.gcc Date: 1997-07-01T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Cory says <> To clarify here, we tell customers that we think it is in the best interests of GNAT if prereleases and wavefronts are not released generally (for all the reasons I have previously stated), but that is absolutely right, we cannot require it. This is a similar situation to the GCC snapshots, which are available on a limited basis, with a similar note that it is in the best interests of the GNU project if these snapshots are not distributed. But there too, it cannot be required, and in fact at least on one occasion, a public release of Linux on CD/ROM has included the snapshot sources, much to the consternation of FSF and Richard Stallman. Richard Stallman is in fact quite insistent on the undesirability of releasing snapshots generally. His concern is just like ours. It is one thing to have a single user run into difficulties under conditions where these difficulties can be immediately addressed. It is quite another to have a public release where there are problems. In the latter case, there will be general yelling and complaining, and this does not help the GCC community at all. I will reiterate that our release policies are geared to the needs of the general GNAT consuming public, which is a very large set of people at this stage, most of whom have very little expertise in getting arond problems (you would be amazed at the number of reports of installation problems we have that arise simply from not carefully following the installation instructions). Yes, there are a few enthusiasts who would like to fiddle with the absolutely latest version, but we do not gear our public release policies to this small group! P.S. When I mention Richard Stallman's insistence on the undesirability of releasing snapshots, I am reminded of an incident a while ago in which we discussed with him the possibility of releasing snapshots with one public version of GNAT. He got very agitated, and yelled at us (this was in person, not by email), and we quite understood this reaction :-) Note that the issue of figuring out appropriate release dates is one that all vendors of software face. The fact that software is free software really makes no difference at all. There are people who would love to get their hands on Windows 97 right now, but Microsoft has decided it is not ready yet. Sure, vendors may make mistakes, but the temptation is in the direction of releasing too early. Just the other day, I suggested an early public release of 3.10 to the team here, but the discussion overruled the suggestion, since people pointed out several points (including the issue of dragging in the tasking stuff all the time) that really need solving before the public release. You should understand that I am eager to get 3.10 out as early as possible, for one thing, I would like people to be able to use the super-neat SPITBOL stuff that I have added. But it is a long-term mistake to let this eagerness result in a premature release. Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies