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Re: GCC 3.0 Release Criteria


I just re-read and pondered about this subthread. Below you'll find
two specific issues, which I believe have not been fully addressed
yet, together with suggested changes to criteria.html.

As a matter of fact, this discussion is not about Mark, in whose
integrity and ability to make sound and fair decisions I (and I believe
most of those having raised issues) absolutely trust, but about "public
relations".

On 1 May 2000, Andreas Jaeger wrote:
> Does it really make sense to test for both RedHat and Debian at all?

Many will find it a bit disturbing that, while we want to keep the list as
short as possible (which makes a lot of sense) we have two instances of
one and the same platform, both hardware- and software-wise, as primary
platforms (Intel x86).

Suggested change: Being a GNU project, I believe we should keep Debian
  GNU/Linux and move Red Hat on Intel to the secondary platforms. That
  should help convince BSD platforms, for example, that they are not
  second class citizens.
 
Mark Mitchell wrote:
> If there's the odd bug or two on SunOS 4.1.4, that's too bad -- but
> not nearly as damaging to the GNU Project as whole, in my opinion.

I completely agree with that point of view, and I definitely believe that
Mark will treat a critical bug on, say NetBSD (where Charles is concerned
about), differently from a bug on a dying platform like SunOS 4.1.4.

And I fully agree that SunOS makes an extremely useful platform for
testing and should be listed as a testing platform.

Yet, it is a matter of "optics" to see actively developed free software
platforms in the same section as dying proprietary ones and indeed I
believe that this has been the root of some of the controversy here.

Suggested change: Add a sentence, that we are especially concerned about
  (free) systems, where GCC serves as the system compiler, to reassure
  our commitment to the BSDs.

Gerald
-- 
Gerald "Jerry" pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/~pfeifer/


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