Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!pp!pink!rfg
From: rfg@pink.ACA.MCC.COM (Ron Guilmette)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: C++ 2.0 pricing and licensing policy
Message-ID: <273@pink.ACA.MCC.COM>
Date: 7 Jul 89 22:54:05 GMT
References: <1989Jun30.074346.15350@lth.se> <264@pink.ACA.MCC.COM> <8723@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <272@pink.ACA.MCC.COM> <463@dialogic.UUCP>
Reply-To: rfg@pink.aca.mcc.com.UUCP (Ron Guilmette)
Organization: MCC  Austin, Texas
Lines: 80

In article <463@dialogic.UUCP> paul@dialogic.UUCP (Paul Bennett) writes:
>
>I think you got it in one, Ron! AT&T know how to make money. Also, the way
>I see it is that their view is to let third parties do the porting and support
>for unpopular and "non-AT&T approved" architectures like the 386 :-).

Right.  Third parties will do porting & support and only (re)sell BINARIES.
I think that's the whole plan.  Nothing wrong with that.  End users may end up
paying less.  They just won't get the source anymore.  Unfortunately, for
some people (like me) that takes all the fun out of it.  The people who
pay the bills may disagree with this sentiment. :-)

>
>This is all well and good, but what do WE (i.e the people who want C++ 2.0 
>NOW !) do about it ? It seems we have but one choice - use G++. Now I am quite
>prepared to do this, I've used GNUemacs for a while and it's great, and I
>support the goals of the FSF - but I need a little help. Sure, I could figure
>out all the nitty-gritty that it takes to get the compiler to REALY work on my
>platform, but surely this is re-inventing the wheel. My point is, can we all
>come together, and use the net to colectively support G++ on a number of
>architectures ? RMS has always said that free software would generate an
>industry of support consultants - well, I'dlike to find some right now.

Alright.  I have two important points to make.

First, the FSF distributes a directory of GNU consultants.  That is a place
that you could start your search.

Second, at the risk of being accused of being crass and excessively commercial
on the net (and at the risk of alienating my few friends at AT&T) I'd like to
point out that my name is on the list I mentioned above.  Today is my last day
at MCC and I have no pending commitments for awhile. Please contact me privately
for further details.

By the way, (unless I am mistaken) I was the first one to ever get G++ running
on SystemV.

>It may be that this is already happening, and I'm missing it - if so, could
>someone PLEASE enlighten me!.

Consider yourself enlightened.

>I'd be interested to know what the FSF think
>about this - they seem to have been rather quiet.

FSF would love to have lots of outside help (paid or otherwise) and they do *not*
appear to get defensive about their "turf" when other people sell support for
their code.  Quite the opposite.  Thus, the consultants directory.

>Also, I wonder if the 
>range of machines/OS's is too great to do this effectively.

Do what?  If you want support for YOUR machine then that is only one machine.
If you want EVERY machine that GCC has EVER been ported to to be fully
SUPPORTED, that is another matter.

>I would guess that
>the main contenders are SUN and 386/System V (my appologies to all those 
>offended by this - let me know what you are using).

>In summary, then, what I'm saying is: can we put an effective support service
>in place, that will allow us to use G++ commercially (i.e under deadlines) ?

This is just like asking if we can house *all* of the homeless people in this
country.  Of course we can!  The only question now is who is going to pay for it?

Welcome to Economics 101.

>I'd really like to try and do this - C++ is very effective at reducing software
>costs, but ONLY if we have good tools and support for them. This posting is 
>intended to provoke a discussion, and see if we can get someting to happen.

Discussion has now been provoked. :-)


-- 
// Ron Guilmette  -  MCC  -  Experimental Systems Kit Project
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