Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!jhunix!barrett From: barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Information on Amiga Technical Reference Seri Message-ID: <8738@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> Date: 18 Jun 91 13:10:37 GMT References: <22455@cbmvax.commodore.com> <3096@public.BTR.COM> Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF Lines: 38 In article <3096@public.BTR.COM> valentin@public.BTR.COM (Valentin Pepelea) writes: >This is absolute nonesense. Nobody in his right mind would start using >tricks or undocumented features that would break their software in the >future. Valentin, did you really WRITE this? Didn't Commodore just spend months adapting the operating system so people's incorrectly-written programs would run? If "nobody in his right mind" uses undocumented features, then there are a lot of insane people in the world.... My two cents on the issue: I wouldn't mind seeing the source code for some of the applications (like C: commands, etc), but I see no real need for the OS source code. I have been a UNIX systems administrator for 5 years, and we always buy the source code. I use it (/usr/src) daily. But I NEVER needed the source code for the low-level operating system stuff -- UNIX system calls -- except when I am modifying the kernel. There's absolutely no information in there that I would use (read "rely on") in my own applications, because it's all subject to change by the manufacturer. (And modified kernels are something I'd HATE to see appearing in the Amiga community. It would create a support nightmare for Commodore.) Just the other day, I rewrote one of my programs to use a totally different memory-allocation model. If any of my users had relied on my ordinary use of malloc() and free(), they'd be sorely surprised now! Instead, they use the program in the way it is documented. I'm sure Commodore does this kind of thing on a much larger scale.... All IMHO. Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett, Department of Computer Science Johns Hopkins University | | INTERNET: barrett@cs.jhu.edu | | | COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | UUCP: barrett@jhunix.UUCP | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////