Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!decwrl!decwrl!granite.pa.dec.com!mwm From: mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (Real Amigas have keyboard garages) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Does Shareware hurt professional software development? Message-ID: Date: 6 Jun 90 20:12:23 GMT References: <136464@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <3165@bnr-rsc.UUCP> Sender: news@decwrl.dec.com Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 59 In article <3165@bnr-rsc.UUCP> schow@bcarh185.bnr.ca (Stanley T.H. Chow) writes: Hmm, will you also produce the new versions of GCC to keep up with ANSI changes? New optimizations? New Amiga file formats? ANSI can't change - it's a standard. There'll eventually be a new standard, but as far as I know, there's not even a committee to discuss forming a committee to do the new standard yet. The one thing you have to watch for is clarifications that differ from what's in the standard already. Those are closer to bug fixes than anything else, and (unless someone complains about them) will get done the same way bug fixes & optimizer improvements get done, with the port of the next release of the compiler. Changes in the AmigaDOS file system should be transparent to the compiler. How much will you charge for all that? $50/hour (that's Chuck's price break). Remember, I'm selling _support_, not a product! Will you get all the changes done in a competitive schedule? Of course. At least as competitive as Manx has been for the last few years :-). What gurantee will you give Chuck that you won't get tired of this one day and stop supporting GCC? Who would support Chuck if something happens to you? Who handles the problems when you are on vacation? The same guarantee he gets from all other commercial support groups, and the same people who'd support him if something happened to other commercial support people. And I don't go on vacation while I'm working on a high-priority problem. If something occurs when a commercial support group is under-staffed, then some problems slide. Same thing happens in this case. Please don't misconstrue this posting as doubting your ability or sincerity. I am just trying to point out "support" means many different things. Yup, it does. I was pointing out that GCC killing a commercial product is really no different than a a commercial product killing it. For example, when the second Amiga C compiler was introduced, a lot of people moved to it. I didn't, because I thought it was badly supported and not enough better to justify the cost & loss of support. If that move had killed the commercial product I was using, how would my situation have been any different from Chuck's if GCC killed the commercial product he was using?