Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: VLT Help needed Message-ID: <1991Jan1.050733.457@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 1 Jan 91 05:07:33 GMT References: <8pwxo8v@Unify.Com> <1990Dec30.163531.22293@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1990Dec31.083636.21657@evax.arl.utexas.edu> Distribution: na Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 36 _Most_ PD software authors have real lives besides; I don't see how Willy's job at SLAC makes him not a _real_ PD software author. I know Geography is a weak subject for students these days, but Willy and I are casual friends, and live about 20 miles apart. I've been in his office, helping him move some hardware, and also helped him contact some French correspondents about another software library, via USENet. You can actually get email to him from here occasionally, if you're clever and persistent. All of which doesn't change the point at all; if you write PD software, you either have control of all the accessories, and furnish them too, or you write for the vanilla OS. I've lost count of how many people have written to the net asking what this error was from one PD package or another about a missing arp.library. You shouldn't require other people's PD software to go along with yours for several reasons: 1) You can't guarantee they have it in hand, unless you distribute it, and that causes upgrade control problems. 2) You can't control that it retains compatibility with your software through _its_ upgrades, what does your user do with version n+2 which is critical to other operations when your code needs version n-3 and won't work with a later version? 3) You can't anticipate other conflicts you are going to cause your user if this fourth party software is installed -- if the arp.library has calls that interfere with the foo.library (they lock access to the third serial port differently, e.g.) from still a fifth party, that your user is already using, there is no comfortable way to put the software together. 4) Your intended user may simply hate the fourth party software, and refuse to entertain the thought of installing it along with yours. Kent, the man from xanth.