Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!lll-winken!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!scott
From: scott@cs.hw.ac.uk (Scott Telford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
Subject: Re: Origami 1.5
Message-ID: <2544@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Mar 91 15:48:54 GMT
References: <4148@rwthinf.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk
Reply-To: scott@cs.hw.ac.uk (Scott Telford)
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, UK.
Lines: 44

In article <4148@rwthinf.UUCP>
u31b3hs@cip-s02.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) writes:
> 
>If you use SunOs 4.0.x, your include files and libraries are not up
>to date.  Do not waste any time with porting it, Origami runs ok
>with 4.1.  If you want to use it on 4.0, compile a version on 4.1
>and use static linking.  The resulting binary runs on 4.0.  (We
>tried it a week ago on our systems).
> ...
>A big clean-up is made at the moment which results in a modular,
>well-structured and commented code for the next version.  The
>current version should be used for using, not for extending this
>editor.  A lot of new features will be available too, but this new
>version 1.6 is neither finished or well-tested.  The current
>version 1.5 should be stable for using it.
>

Can you give us an approximate release date for 1.6?

>There will be no support for old systems in Origami.  We made this
>decision to encourage using POSIX.  I really hate the divergencies
>between Unices, and POSIX tries to prevent this.  Most manufacturers
>accept this in their newest releases.  A program should not contain
>50 percent #ifdef MY_SYSTEM, #ifdef YOUR_SYSTEM.

I can understand the attraction of sticking uncompromisingly to a
standard and ignoring all else, but I think a more pragmatic attitude
would be useful. There must be a still be a lot of SunOS 4.0 boxes
out there (there are quite a few here!) and simply writing them off as
"not up to date" is not much consolation for the people that use them.

I bet GNU Emacs (or MicroEMACS, for that matter) wouldn't have got
where it is today if it had been compatible with only strictly
Posix-compliant systems :-)

BTW, Andy Rabagliati has updated the Origami source files on the INMOS US
archive-server to v1.5.



 _____________________________________________________________________________
| Scott Telford, Dept of Computer Science,               scott@cs.hw.ac.uk    |
| Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.                 scott%hwcs@ukc.uucp  |
|_____ "Expect the unexpected." (The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) ______|