Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!udel!mmdf From: Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (marty) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: C-News on Minix? Message-ID: <24898@louie.udel.EDU> Date: 26 Sep 89 16:20:19 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 43 Lars Fisher (fischer@iesd.auc.dk) sez: [ Which should not keep *us* from using GNU products. GNU products are in general of a very high quality, and GNU AWK is a very fine product indeed. If P-H bails out near GNU AWK (:-), shame on them! Its really silly if the GNU and MINIX efforts are going to work against each other, instead of cooperating (yes, I know that the RMS and AST disagree in many ways, not the least of which is the proper amount of memory to use for a given task :-). ] I agree totally with Lars. I don't understand what the problem is with P-H -- the GPL (Gnu Public License) seems clear enough as far as distribution requirements go. The GNU tools tend to be bigger than the equivalent Minix tools but they work and they're of exceedingly high quality (I use them on Sun386i, Sun/4 and the ones that fit under Ms/Dos). I can't believe there isn't a reasonable way for P-H and FSF to work something out. I remember the initial version of Bawk many years ago -- I couldn't get it to do anything. I really think the FSF tools would enhance Minix as a system. The alternative is going to be a plethora of versions of programs (which I'm beginning to see). A large percentage of GNU tools come with excellent documentation (I learned awk from the gawk manual, the gnu make document is great). But there's a price -- 100 page manuals in machine readable format take up space. marty ARPA: leisner.henr@xerox.com GV: leisner.henr NS: leisner:wbst139:xerox UUCP: hplabs!arisia!leisner