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From: csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: poolfix3, poolfix4; naming conventions.
Message-ID: <2718@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Date: 9 May 90 12:33:45 GMT
References: <2709@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> <2586@syma.sussex.ac.uk> <1990May9.042912.22032@wam.umd.edu>
Organization: CSD, University of Erlangen, W-Germany
Lines: 46

dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) writes:

>The problem was not with the program itself, but with the author's 
>attitude.  Allan Pratt may not be perfect, but then again if you've
>every released software to the world you know that getting everything
>absolutely right the first time isn't likely no matter how careful you are.

>The original poolfix4 posting was one of the most pompous and obnoxious
>messages I've ever seen in this newsgroup.  There was more of an
>"I'm a better hacker, Nyyaah!" feeling there than an "I'm trying to help
>out" attitude.  If I'd been Allan I would have been annoyed too.

Well, right, the first readme file that I sent to some friends who needed
a patched POOLFIX version was a bit provocative. I've changed that
meanwhile, and I apologized for allowing Chris overhastedly to post it.
Maybe you would understand my attitude in the readme file if you know
how you feel like after an evening of disassembling and patching a
foreign program in order to solve a SEP (somebody else's problem) which
ATARI should have known about and cared for for a long time.
(Remember: The bug has been reported! BTW: It isn't the only bug
in the pool manager, but this is another story and we're currently
trying to find out more about it.)

Alas, if you could read some of my articles in German ST magazines or
my book, you wouldn't have been very surprised to find unusual readmes
from me. My readers seem to like it, and so far nobody really did mind.

Allan Pratt's message that I've seen didn't mention the readme file,
so it seems he wasn't particularly upset because of this. His point
was different: Publishing the program as POOLFIX4, and failing to ask
before. I really do regret doing this, and I hope Allan will someday
forgive me. But on the other hand, there's a real demand for patches
and programs like this, and we're fed up with waiting for ATARI to
do it for us in Germany. We have learnt a lesson: Don't wait for ATARI
to fix it, fix it yourself. This is a main reason why ATARI is so
successful over here: They are supported by their users. It should
be the other way round, though.

Don't forget this is a personal opinion derived from a 4-years-experience
with the ST and ATARI; others will disagree or have experienced much more
feedback from ATARI. Maybe I'm the only one who feels a lack of support.

I hope that Allan will come up with his own POOLFIX4 version and end
this discussion.

Claus Brod