🚀 go-pugleaf

"Use the source, Luke..."

In article <505941353.strauss@GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU>, Daryll Strauss writes:
> The problem with posting sources is that many sources are compiler
> specific, and many people don't want to muck with the code to get it to
> compile. And a lot of people don't even have the compilers.

I can't sympathize with somebody who has a Usenet connection but is
too cheap to buy a C compiler for their machine.

If you receive a source and don't have a compiler, you can always find
a friend or a user's group where you can compile it.

I understand that a lot of cheap hacks are "compiler specific" but
it seems like if you're going to post something to a thousand sites
(at their expense and with your name and reputation on it), it would
be worth sending it to a few friends first to make sure you have made
it portable.  Many people in the Unix world take great care to do this
with their postings, and it shows.  It *is* possible to write
compiler independent and environment independent programs -- look at
netnews as an example.  The code quality is pretty bad, but it *does*
compile and run just about everywhere.

Especially with the Atari and Amiga, there is a "standard" C compiler
and libraries, that you can buy from the manufacturer.  Newer compilers
will have to follow those standards to be successful.  This was a big
problem on the Mac but let's leave the Mac's problems behind us instead
of dragging them into the Atari world.

Hey!  I've noticed that everybody's posting sources for the Amiga now.
It's just the Atari folks who are holding out.  Maybe you-all are
afraid your code will end up running on (shudder) Amigas?