🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Jun18.042950.4473@netcom.COM>, jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
|> Sorry. I retract my statement that when it comes to compilers you
|> get what you pay for, at least as it concerns the particular case
|> of GNU. I've received nothing but praise (usually
|> stated quite angrily) via e-mail for the GNU family. I find this,
|> by the way, to be totally bizarre, since it seemingly flies in
|> the face of 6,000 years of free-market economic theory. Why something
|> free would be quite bug free and would have great support in contrast
|> to something that costs money is completely beyond me--were this true
|> in general one would expect cheap cars to be better than expensive
|> ones, and free cars to be best of all. Anybody care to enlighten me?
|> 
|> Incidentally, I'm curious about the scalability of the GNU stuff to
|> projects of significant scope and complexity. Do they work as well
|> on 2 MSLOC projects as they do on 5 KSLOC programs?
|> 
|> >It's been my experience that the vendors of compilers *never* share their
|> >bug list with customers.
|> 
|> The compiler vendor I used to work for not only published known
|> bugs but known workarounds as well. If this is not common practice,
|> it jolly well ought to be.
|> -- 
|> *** LIMITLESS SOFTWARE, Inc: Jim Showalter, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 ****
|> *Proven solutions to software problems. Consulting and training on all aspects*
|> *of software development. Management/process/methodology. Architecture/design/*
|> *reuse. Quality/productivity. Risk reduction. EFFECTIVE OO usage. Ada/C++.    *

Actually its not as bizarre as it sounds when you understand that:
A) despite what people think, ours is not truely a free market economy. It might
   have started out that way, but it was legislated/litigated to death. Your
   "6000 years of free-market economic theory" doesn't apply.

B) Companies in business to make money will do just that, make money... In the 
   software industry a fair percentage of the money coming in goes to support
   lawyers, either to sue someone for copyright/patent infringement or protect
   themselves from such a lawsuit. (unfortunately the software industry has
   a tendency to litigate, not inovate.) This money must come from somewhere
   (of course it won't come from the profits or salaries of the executives :-)
   so what do you do? you cut back on two *major* sources of expense, pre-release
   testing and debugging... Don't point the finger *too* much at the programmers...
   they do what they can given their budget restraints...


ahhh...enough babbling...

John

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Burton                                                        |
| G & A Technical Software                                           |
| jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov                                       |
| jcburt@cs.wm.edu                                                   |
|                                                                    |
| Disclaimer: Hey, what can I say...These are *my* views, not those  |
|             of anyone else, be they employer, school, or government|
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