🚀 go-pugleaf

Personally, I don't care if DEC port PATCH or not. Mostly, you have to
shutdown an application to apply a patch or an upgrade, but if it is
easier for the distributer to get me a patch rather than a recompiled
image, fine!

However, I'd like to see DEC port almost everything else first! If they're
going to spend development time, please let them spend it on porting
products that we use everyday, not products that we may be able to save
a bit of time with. It's a bit hard to patch a non-existent image!!
(Some stuff is not expected to be available until 1994! Surely you could
have sent me a CD distribution of the new images by then!)

Secondly, compare the experience of the average VMS patcher with that
of your average ALPHA patcher. I hope this doesn't offend anyones
pride too much, but I wouldn't really put a lot of trust in a patch on a
fairly new machine (You can't even buy them yet!) compared to a newly
compiled program. How many ALPHA gurus can there be in the industry by now?
And so what proportion of developers will be able to successfully make use
of PATCH?

I would hate to see us lose functionality in the move to ALPHA! That's
backward. However, there is certain functionality which is of everyday
importance and, for a majority of users, that doesn't include PATCH.
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Spencer, BHP Information Technology           |   Sorry, but my .sig
Newcastle, Australia        Voice: +61 49 40 1673 |   is on .sig leave!
Bits: robbie@winkle.bhpese.oz.au                  |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~