tpn+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Tom Neuendorffer) (02/23/90)
I am very interested in getting patches and new code from other sites.
Such contributions are important to the future of ATK. We are currently
involved in discussing how we could handle such contributions. There are
several issues involved.
1. There are legal concerns (is the contributed code owned by some
company ? Can we legally redistribute it?) . At a minimum, the code
should contain copyrights along the lines of those on X tape
software.
2. There are concerns regarding how people might get themselves in
trouble using code we ship. Because of the nature of the system,
there are certain extensions that could be very useful in some
environments, but major security holes in others. We have to think
carefully about such features before we redistribute them.
3. Will the contributed code function outside of the computing
environment in which it was created? Who will test the code in other
environments? Who ends up supporting the code?
4. It is important that the documentation stay up to date. We are
also trying to avoid sending out patches of changes that will cause
the receivers to have to recompile the world.
I hope that soon we will be in a position to deal with these
questions. Meanwhile, bug-fix patches should continue to be sent to
info-andrew-bugs. We welcome patches that provide new features, but we
will need time to evaluate them.
If you have new insets, you might consider putting them in the
contrib/andrew directory on expo.lcs.mit.edu, and make a post here
regarding availability.
Thanks to all to who have made contributions to the Andrew system. I
always look forward to seeing what new things people come up with.
Regards,
Tom Neuendorffer
Manager, ATK group
ITC / CMU