Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!udel!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uunet!sunquest!venus.sunquest.com!terry
From: terry@venus.sunquest.com (Terry R. Friedrichsen)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: rms says...
Summary: source distributions NOT considered harmful
Keywords: rms  sources  good  bad  ugly
Message-ID: <13731@sunquest.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 91 16:10:27 GMT
Sender: news@sunquest.UUCP
Distribution: usa
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Tucson
Lines: 29

ben@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Benjamin Ellsworth) writes:

>> Furthermore, if so few users will actually ask for the source, making
>> it available costs almost nothing, since the service will hardly ever
>> be used.

>I wonder if you have ever had to support, in the traditional sense, a
>source release.  I rather suspect that if you had, you wouldn't be
>saying that.

Yeah, it's GREAT.  Lots of users take the time to send the FIX in, along
with the bug report.  Lots of users send in ENHANCEMENTS, in source form,
free of charge.

If you can't reproduce the bug, you ask for more information.  If you
STILL can't reproduce it, you explain that to the customer, and they
usually understand and attempt to reproduce the problem on the standard
release.

The customer and the company both benefit.  Binary-only software benefits
only the company.

Terry R. Friedrichsen

terry@venus.sunquest.com  (Internet)
uunet!sunquest!terry	  (Usenet)
terry@sds.sdsc.edu        (alternate address; I live in Tucson)

Quote:  "Do, or do not.  There is no 'try'." - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back