Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ubvax!ames!pioneer.arc.nasa.gov!raymond
From: raymond@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.arpa (Eric A. Raymond)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT and sources
Message-ID: <19878@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 23 Dec 88 22:09:17 GMT
References: <8812220917.AA10582@decwrl.dec.com> <29954@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: raymond@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Eric A. Raymond)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
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In article <29954@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> verber@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu
>
>Two examples if sites that don't need source:
>
>Application development.  A friend of mine has a few machines (Macs
>currently, NeXT in the future?) and is doing some software
>development.  He is writing a very slick tool to do dance notation.
>He has no need for source.

Don't underestimate the utility of source.  It is an extreme pleasure to
work on a Lisp Machine with full sources.  You don't like the way the editor
works, change it.  Find a bug with the file system, change it.  Don't
quite understand how XXX works, look in the source for examples.  Of course,
the real benefits come from the synergy with the truly integrated environment
(in which your never a keystroke away from the source/documentation of a
 function in question AND there is no concept of functions being associated
 with a single program).  I could go on and on, but ....  RELEASE THE SOURCE.


P.S.  When Symbolics restricted source code a few years back, everyone
      screamed bloody murder.  Fortunately they have rereleased the source.

---------

Name: Eric A. Raymond
ARPA: raymond@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov
SLOW: NASA Ames Research Center, MS 244-17, Moffett Field, CA 94035

Nothing left to do but :-) :-) :-)