Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!emory!gatech!prism!jgb
From: jgb@prism.gatech.EDU (James G. Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Clipper 5.01 bugs
Message-ID: <29176@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 16 May 91 17:12:41 GMT
References: <1991May15.210031.23270@pegasus.com> <1991May7.235644.28744@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> <1991May14.170431.1509@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991May16.135821.5096@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 47

In article <1991May16.135821.5096@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (K. Khan) writes:
> [ Various whining about Clipper... ]
> It seems clear that you are the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. 

There is no such thing as a bug-free program, esp a compiler.  Everyone
knows of the "floating point libraries not linked" with TURBO C v2.0.  I surely
did not throw away TC for MSC.  I've had some experience at crafting a 
compiler - I can not fathom the depth of Clipper.  

I have never seen a posting from Mr. Leylan bashing Foxpro, or dBaseIV
to pieces -just explaining the merits of Clipper.  Should I listen to
his advice or the ranting on of someone who hits one snag and throws his
arms up in the air?  

There will always be bugs.  A bug-free Clipper would be on the order
of a bug-free 80386 -which is nothing short of a miracle.  I have
never hit anything that there was not a work around for.  And of course
we all have the choice of going back to earlier versions which may be
more stable but lack features.  

Are you saying that MS should have waited until v3.3 was ready rather
than releasing 3.0, 3.1., 3.2?  Wordperfect 5.0 was a bad move?  Granted,
DOS 4.0 was premature, but no one has a gun to your head.

>               Clearly, 5.00 was too buggy for a "real" release. In my
>book, using your customers as your quality control department is BLOWING
>IT. 5.0 needed much more testing, but clearly Nantucket felt great
>pressure to release it because it was already MANY months late, so they
>shipped it before it was truly ready. As a result, users suffered. That
>is what I call BLOWING IT.

Don't tell me you deleted Clipper '87 before trying v5.0?  Multiply:

(NUMBER OF PC's)*(POSSIBLE DISK SPACE)*(POSSIBLE MEMORY AVAIL)*(PROCESSOR
TYPE)*(VIDEO TYPE)*(PERMUTATIONS OF SOUCE CODE)*(ASSUMPTION THAT DOS,
TSRs, etc ARE WORKING RIGHT)

That's a lot of things to test.   

-J Baker


-- 
BAKER,JAMES G - Undergraduate Lab Instructor, School of Electrical Engineering
____  _    _    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
  |  | _  |_)   uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!jgb 
(_|. |_). |_).  Internet: jgb@prism.gatech.edu, jgb@ee, jgb@eecom, jgb@cc