Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!bradley From: bradley@cs.utexas.edu (Bradley L. Richards) Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog Subject: Re: Arity's so-called upgrade Message-ID: <335@pheasant.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 25 Mar 91 21:37:55 GMT References: <11987@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> <12066@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> Organization: Dept of Computer Sciences, UTexas, Austin Lines: 28 Todd Ogasawara writes: >(1) Arity implied major changes in their product in their upgrade letter >and in changing their version number from 5.1 to 6.0. It isn't a major >upgrade. It is a maintenance release. >(2) Professional software developers DO expect a modern development >environment and find it an important aspect in their productivity. >(3) Arity has not answer any questions posed to them by me as of March 20. Todd raises a number of interesting points. Let me just say that I purchased Arity version 5.1 about a year ago, and ran into a number of problems. Some bugs, some absurd system limitations (like 64k maximum stack space), but to a large extent just a lack of features that any serious programmer now expects in a program development system. Discussions with Arity removed any hope that the system would improve anytime soon, so I stopped using it. If I purchase another PC Prolog, it will be LPA-386. A comment on a related issue: I object to the policy some companies (including Arity) have that says: "you want to report a bug, pay us $xxx for customer support." Sorry folks, but I expect a product that I purchase to work as advertised. If it doesn't, it's the responsibility of the manufacturer to fix it. Period. Bradley P.S. Todd seems to think that his opinions may be discounted by some folks if they think he's a student rather than someone with real-world experience. I hope that's not the case; lot's of us student types have spent many years in the real world.