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From: wescott@Columbia.NCR.COM (Mike Wescott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ncr
Subject: Re: Policy on 'unsupported' programs such as nroff
Message-ID: <1950@sauron.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Date: 5 Feb 90 12:49:29 GMT
References: <1253@anasaz.UUCP>
Sender: news@sauron.Columbia.NCR.COM
Reply-To: wescott@micky.Columbia.NCR.COM (Mike Wescott)
Organization: E&M-Columbia, NCR Corp, W Columbia, SC
Lines: 23

In article <1253@anasaz.UUCP> duane@anasaz.UUCP (Duane Morse) writes:
> It seems silly to ship software which, by its mere existance,
> people will expect to use, and then wash your hands of any
> support. Doesn't this cause irritation in the customers? What's
> the point?

Yes.  It irritates some; likewise lack of certain tools and programs
would irritate others.  And even "unsupported" programs do get some
support, one has to yell a little louder though. And, as is the case
of nroff, it is still usable in many cases in spite of the bugs.

In the case of nroff, troff etc. there are several problems.  The
troff and nroff that support compressed macros have been superceded
by later versions (Documenter's Workbench in AT&T's nomenclature)
which are a separately licensed product.  A second problem is that
even these versions are notoriously buggy, and fairly complex. If
a customer were to require DWB we would generally recommend a vendor
that sells and supports DWB.


--
	-Mike Wescott
	 mike.wescott@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM