[comp.mail.elm] Unofficial patches

cudcv@warwick.ac.uk (Rob McMahon) (09/04/89)

In article <26756@winchester.mips.COM> pmm@mips.COM (Paul M. Moriarty) writes:
>In article <193@titania.warwick.ac.uk> cudcv@warwick.ac.uk (Rob McMahon) writes:
>>In article <27062@amdcad.AMD.COM> indra@hobbes.AMD.COM (Indra Singhal) writes:
>>>I am not sure how everyone else feels, but posting unofficial patches on
>>>the net is a sure way of causing confusion.
>>
>>I strongly disagree with this....
>
>I'd have to agree with Indra on this one. It is potentially confusing to post
>unofficial patches, particularly when those patches do not update
>/hdrs/patchlevel.h.

Unofficial patches should definitely *not* update patchlevel.h, that really
would cause confusion.  What if 2 people upgrade from PL10 to PL10.1?  Would
fractional patchlevels work anyway ?  Certainly you can't upgrade to PL11,
because that would indicate the official patch.

>I'd say it would be better to post a not to say that you have an unofficial
>patch that does whatever and request that interested parties send mail to
>you requesting the patch.

I don't see the difference, except the load on the person who's suggesting the
patch, and his (possibly trans-Atlantic) mail costs.  There's no obligation to
apply an unofficial patch, the official patches are obvious, and the sender
only has to send it once to the newsgroup instead of a note to the newsgroup,
a copy of the patches to the maintainers, and n copies to whoever wants one.
What's the problem ?

Rob (who worries about his mail bill)
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Rob McMahon, Computing Services, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, England