From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeff Sturm To: James Grishaw Cc: cygwin@sourceware.cygnus.com Subject: Cygwin snapshots (was: Re: PLEASE help with V1.0 canonical mode problem Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 12:43:00 -0000 Message-id: <38E11A6B.DAE7A504@sigma6.com> References: <20000328183923.XXUS21091.mta01.onebox.com@onebox.com> X-SW-Source: 2000-03/msg00674.html James Grishaw wrote: [...] > " Cygwin snapshots are intended for cygwin developers only unless you > have been specifically told to try one of these. " I take that to mean "don't use a snapshot in place of the release unless you have a good reason", like comm support, ntsec, etc. Sorta common sense, I think... [...] > We all bought the CD with the idea that (a) it had undergone testing > to > assure that it is stable and bug-free, and (b) people that bought the > CD would be given at least a little preference when it came to support. There are no guarantees. Ever read a typical EULA from shrink-wrap software? You know, the "NO WARRANTY...AT YOUR OWN RISK...SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS-IS" stuff. Apparently nobody ever has concerns about the EULA. It intrigues me when someone requests better support for a commercial package based on the public availability of source code and snapshots. What does it mean to "support" the CD anyway? (Ask Microsoft to patch Win2k to fix a single bug... do you think they'll comply? They might say "wait for the next release". Having access to untested snapshots can be no worse.) > I'm even willing to donate engineering time to the task. If you can't > do > the above, can you at least have him send me an e-mail pointing me in > the right direction so I can do it myself? I volunteer to supply you > with > my work when I am done. I'm not too familiar with Cygwin development... is there a ChangeLog file? What about a "cygwin-patches" list? If so, it shouldn't be too hard to dig up the relevant patch. Applying that patch to the source release may or may not be trivial, however... sometimes there are just too many code changes from the release branch to main trunk. Do Cygwin developers use regression testing? Is there are test suite available? If so, any volunteer could also post test results for any particular snapshot, to give some kind of objective indicator of the quality of a snapshot. (If not, a test suite would be a nice side project, too.) The beauty of open source is that nobody is forced to wait for Cygnus/Red Hat... anyone who is sufficiently motivated is free to test, patch and even build a release of the software themselves. And if nothing else, we have the blind assurance that each snapshot is probably tested by a substantial group of net volunteers, even if no formal testing is done. (Note: I am not affiliated with Cygnus/Red Hat in any manner. The above is my personal opinion only.) -- Jeff Sturm jsturm@sigma6.com -- Want to unsubscribe from this list? Send a message to cygwin-unsubscribe@sourceware.cygnus.com