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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!xanth!kent
From: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: "Interesting" error interpretation by f77.
Message-ID: <2576@xanth.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Sep-87 20:15:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: xanth.2576
Posted: Fri Sep 25 20:15:21 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Sep-87 10:20:12 EDT
References: <5117@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <2577@aw.sei.cmu.edu> <5307@j.cc.purdue.edu> <2619@aw.sei.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 41
Keywords: FORTRAN parsing, error interpretation.
Summary: Unix and "too much amateur software"

In article <2619@aw.sei.cmu.edu> firth@bd.sei.cmu.edu.UUCP writes:
[gobs of great stuff pointing out why f77 error messages are inadequate]
>As a last point: compilers that do all the above exist, and exist in
>profusion.  After using some of them, you might come to hold my view,
>that Unix is cursed with too much amateur software. (Or you might not;
>tastes vary)


Oops.  You were on a roll right up to here, then the hackles started
to rise!  ;-) I use a pretty substantial part of all of the utilities
and languages provided with BSD4.3.  Among the (education oriented)
users of this system, I'm pretty sure over 90% are used regularly.  I
used to do a lot of commercial software buying, back when I was still
working for a living, and if you had to pay for "professional"
software to replace the stuff that comes bundled with Unix, 1) you
would pay $0.5M to $1.3M for the OS with goodies, and 2) most of it
would be in _worse_ shape.

The up side of "amateur software" is that everybody gets a shot at
finding and kicking out bugs, too (at least, everybody at sites with a
source license), providing a much quicker path to (relatively) clean
software.  At commercial prices (the same compiler that can be had for
$500 on a micro is suddenly worth $20,000 on a mainframe), educational
institutions, the ones who supply the bulk of the cheap labor to
upgrade and improve Unix, would not be able to afford the system at
all, and so everyone who benefits would instead suffer.

I also have a lot of love for _good_ commercial software; there's just
so little of commercial software that is good, and such outrageous
prices on all of it.

Kent, the man from xanth.

		His expression lit up.  "Hey, you wouldn't be
		a dope smuggler, would you?"

		Rail looked confused.  "Why would anyone wish
		to smuggle stupidity when there is so much of
		it readily available?"

			-- Alan Dean Foster, GLORY LANE