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
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