hak@cooper.cooper.EDU (Jeff Hakner ) (10/02/89)
Now that the first wave of reaction to my original
posting ("Bugs in the BSD sources ??") has subsided, I shall
move forward. First, let's summarize what we have learned thusfar:
1) One poster errantly assessed my posting to be a complaint
about the existence of bugs in software. Obviously, there
DNE software s.t. lim (t-->inf) failures(t)=0. What I was
concerned about is the apparent fact that this software is
being released without first being compiled, let alone tested.
2) It is generally agreed upon (by me as well) that we should be
thankful that this software exists at all. Clearly, we
ought to appreciate the efforts of its authors.
3) However, I still do not understand how these kinds of bugs
could be distributed. My typical development cycle goes:
think-->write code-->compile-->run-->find bugs-+
^---------------------------------------------|
|
/
package <--------------------
v
double-check
v
release to the universe
What seems to be happening here is:
make working release-->create some previous
delta release that doesn't work-->release that
4) How can we obtain the correct sources? No one has yet answered
this question.
Let the second round begin!
Jeff Hakner
Cooper Uniongamiddleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton) (10/04/89)
In article <1807@cooper.cooper.EDU> hak@cooper.cooper.EDU (Jeff Hakner ) writes: > 3) However, I still do not understand how these kinds of bugs > could be distributed. My typical development cycle goes: I think Chris Torek pointed out that producing a verifiably working program takes a lot of time, which CSRG doesn't have -- they are too busy working on 4.4BSD. > 4) How can we obtain the correct sources? No one has yet answered > this question. Getting the current version from Berkeley won't help, because they don't run 4.3 any more. I think your only choice is to fix the bugs yourself. -Guy Middleton, University of Waterloo gamiddleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (+1 519 885 1211 x3472) gamiddleton@watmath.uwaterloo.ca
davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) (10/04/89)
In article <29755@watmath.waterloo.edu>, gamiddleton@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton) writes: | I think Chris Torek pointed out that producing a verifiably working program | takes a lot of time, which CSRG doesn't have -- they are too busy working on | 4.4BSD. This is an example of sleazy commercial mentality, "get it out the door with lots of neat new features, and let the users beta test it." I'm only half kidding here. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) "The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called 'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see that the world is flat!" - anon
steve@fnord.umiacs.umd.edu (Steve D. Miller) (10/06/89)
Not true. The point here is to avoid having the users beta test 4.4BSD, by spending time on the 4.4BSD testing rather than spending time on making sure that every little piece of code that appears in the bsd-sources mini-distribution works perfectly. -Steve Spoken: Steve Miller Domain: steve@umiacs.umd.edu UUCP: uunet!mimsy!steve Phone: +1-301-454-1808 USPS: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742