u31b3hs@cip-s01.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) (12/12/90)
In ">Where is MINIX going?" Jim Paradis writes: >Actually, as for 32-bit and VM and all that... I for one agree that >the official release of MINIX should be "lean and mean", and that you >should resist creeping featureism as much as possible. I have no problem >with adding additional features (like the VM implementation I'm working >on) as long as they remain unofficial additions to the base release >and not a part of the base system itself. Bruce Evans, Earl Chew, et al >have shown us that "unofficial" need not mean "unprofessional". > >Perhaps one way to "resist" the pressure to add features would be >to do what a lot of other OS vendors do: have an "official" >distribution, and also have an "unspported features" tape/disk >set. The latter would contain all the goodies people are likely to >ask for but that you don't want to make part of the "official" >distribution. It comes on a strictly as-is, no-support, buyer-beware >product (sort of like a lot of anonymous-ftp software is today). I agree, but only for features which are not part of official MINIX, like virtual consoles, shared memory and so on... On the other side, some people rewrote programs distributed with official MINIX, e.g. mail, ls, tsort. I would appreciate it, if the official programs are replaced by their improved versions, espacially if the official programs do not compile (ls!) or do not work (tsort). I suggest, that big archive servers reorganize their archives in: (unofficial) upgrades for official sources rewritten programs which replace official sources Each program should have its version number in its name (only archive!), so everyone can see, if he/she has the newest version. If there is anything wrong with the rewritten programs, people can fix it. Otherwise, the next official version makes them official. In my opinion, this is very important because I have mail, tsort, lp[drq], ls, man, curses, ... and each one is better than the official. There are patches for ps, login ... from virtual consoles, shared text segments, more serial lines ... too. Note, that the patched versions are still working in the official environment and no #ifdefs are needed. If would not like if PH sells a "unsupported features" tape/disk as part of MINIX, because the price for MINIX will rise. Perhaps this can be a option or one PD shop sells it for a low price, like all other public domain software. This will be nice for all people without net access, too. Michael Haardt u31b3hs%cip-s01.informatik.rwth-aachen.de@unido.bitnet Please do not use the adress in the header. ---------------------------- Namaskaar -----------------------------
overby@plains.NoDak.edu (Glen Overby) (12/13/90)
In article <3735@rwthinf.UUCP> u31b3hs@cip-s01.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) writes:, >In ">Where is MINIX going?" Jim Paradis writes: >>Perhaps one way to "resist" the pressure to add features would be >>to do what a lot of other OS vendors do: have an "official" >>distribution, and also have an "unspported features" tape/disk >>set. [...] > [...] I suggest, that big archive servers reorganize their archives in: > (unofficial) upgrades for official sources > rewritten programs which replace official sources I like the idea, no matter whether it's done by an archive site maintainer or not. I think it would take a lot of load off of Andy's shoulders to have a 3rd party taking on some of the more adventurous deviations so that he wouldn't have to, but at the same time it might seem to wrench Minix from Andy's hands. I wouldn't want this discussion (or project, if it ever goes anywhere) to come across saying to Andy "Thanks for Minix, now let go". There have been times I've sensed feelings like this in this forum. The archive sites are each a one-man effort, and I've (unsuccessfully) tried to organize the archive maintainers as a sub-group of the net as a whole. Right now I do not know of anyone who is attempting to a "complete" archive for the ST, Amiga and Mac (if there is, please tell me so I can quit being concerned about those machines). I try to do this on the PC side but I'm several months out of date. As an interim "solution" I made my "save" directory accessable via the archive server. Back to the origional "User Contributed Software issue. There are two camps: I see two: 16-bit and 32-bit. The 16-bit people are basically adding conservative enhancements to 1.5, while the 32-bit people are running GNU Emacs. Each has it's own merits, followers and fanatics. One time (in the 1.3 days) I upload ed a "snapshot" of my conservatively "hacked" system. I have hoped to do that again, but I've never gotten around to it. In fact, I haven't done anything with programs from the net for several months. I had hoped that the "minix referees" group would take more of a commanding position (along the lines of the "distributed comp.sources.unix" group being flamed about on the admin groups) but that did not happen. There doesn't seem to be many volunteers willing to make the time commitment to put something like this together and keep it going. -- Glen Overby <overby@plains.nodak.edu> uunet!plains!overby (UUCP) overby@plains (Bitnet)
ghelmer@dsuvax.uucp (Guy Helmer) (12/14/90)
In <7129@plains.NoDak.edu> overby@plains.NoDak.edu (Glen Overby) writes: > [... lots of suggestions about archives deleted ...] >I had hoped that the "minix referees" group would take more of a commanding >position (along the lines of the "distributed comp.sources.unix" group being >flamed about on the admin groups) but that did not happen. There doesn't >seem to be many volunteers willing to make the time commitment to put >something like this together and keep it going. I am interested in starting a moderated newsgroup, suggested name "comp.sources.minix", where I might accept sources from those on the net, package the sources in a standard format, and then post those sources. I'm worried that I may not be able to handle testing every module by myself, and I know for a fact that I can't test every single little bug fix that goes by. However, I have been keeping a personal archive of major things that have gone by in the past 8 months. I've organized it into a somewhat complete 'unsupported' Minix source code hierarchy, and back in September I offered pieces to the net on disk. Sometime in the future I'd like to bundle what I have and provide to an archive server so everyone may FTP it. (I just did a "du" on my "unsupported" directory, and it's over 5Mb total!). Comments? (what a silly question :-) :-) >-- > Glen Overby <overby@plains.nodak.edu> > uunet!plains!overby (UUCP) overby@plains (Bitnet) -- Guy Helmer helmer@sdnet.bitnet, uunet!dsuvax!ghelmer work: DSU Computing Services, Business & Education Institute (605) 256-5315 play: MidIX System Support Services (605) 256-2788 postnews: message content ambiguous; spurious information added as required