[ECOS] Re: Is eCos project still alive?

[Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com>]

On 2007-12-13, Loginov Alexander <aloginov@asmpt.com> wrote:

> .........
>> Because that's the last time somebody paid developers to do the
>> work involved in a public "release".
>
> Thanks for your comments. Now a bit clearer why the releases
> are not available. But it is quite strange: there is
> eCosCentric but no releases.

There are releases.  That's what eCosPro is.

> Normally the commercial companies that are at the back of the
> open-source project, do this job. Check RTEMS for example. 

No thanks, I'm not going to check RTEMS.

> ........
>> If you don't want to hear answers, then don't ask questions.
>
> Irrelevant note. Not all the phrases are to be understood
> directly. There are idioms in each language. That was one of
> them. Don't take it out of the context. In that context it
> meant: "I don't think so" if you wish
>
> ........
>> Utter bullshit.  They do have bugs, but so do releases. Neither
>> is "supposed to have bugs".
>
> My mistake, I meant to say "expected to have bugs". Here is
> the standard note from a standard open-source project CVS
> tree: "...the CVS code is always moving in features and
> stability. While very attempt is made to keep the CVS head
> working on all targets, but there are no any guarantees". 

I wasn't aware that there was a standard for open-source
projects.

> .......
>> Bah. Nobody intentionally checks in bugs.
>
> Depends. In the area of safety-critical systems, it is a
> standard debugging methodology: you intentionally introduce
> bugs in the systems to see how it can recover itself . 

You don't check them into CVS.

> ... ...
>> There are no "stable releases" of Linux any more.  Active
>> development is being done in the "stable" tree.  There are no
>> more stable and development versions of Linux like there used
>> to be.
>
> Linux itself - yes. But not its distros. The new releases are normally
> produced every 3-6 months.

If you want a stable release of eCos then use eCosPro and stop
whinging at us.

> ... ...
>> On the contrary, we are all from the world of commercial
>> products development.  That's what eCos is used for: developing
>> commercial products.  I've been using eCos to develop
>> commercial products for 7+ years, and the lack of "releases"
>> hasn't been even the least bit of a problem.
>
> That is your personal experience and your personal area of
> expertise in particular commercial product area. Products that
> are expected to have high reliability standards are rarely
> developed from CVS software snapshots.

Products that have high reliability standards do their own
testing and "releasing".  They don't depend on the "releases"
of open-source packages to be bug-free.

>> If you feel you're not capable of working from a CVS repository
>> and really want a "released" version, then that's what eCosPro
>> is: http://www.ecoscentric.com/ecos/ecospro.shtml
>
> Thanks. I have already checked it. Definitely, if we stick to eCos we
> will buy the support from eCosCentric.

I'm glad to hear it.

>> Perhaps one of those RTOSes will meet your privilege
>> management requirement better than eCos.
>
> Unfortunately, they are either too expensive (the royalty fees
> would cost us thousand or even millions of dollars) and most
> of them normally don't provide source code. If they do provide
> it, then it costs another hundreds of thousands.

Releases cost money.

> By the way, do you now any more-or-less free RTOS that
> provides support for privilege levels and process protection?

Nope, I can't afford the dollars or watts for processors that
have those sorts of features.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I'm a fuschia bowling
                                  at               ball somewhere in Brittany
                               visi.com            


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