Shared library annoyance with gcc-3_0-branch

[dewar@gnat.com]

<<I thought the Open Source (or Free Software) philosophy was "Release
early, release often" and "Get a partial solution out there, we can
perfect it later."
>>

This may be some people's philosophy, but to say that all Free Software
follows this philosophy is wrong, and in fact damaging. It implies that
all Free Software is in a constantly changing and half-baked state.
Certainly our viewpoint is diametrically opposed.

Frequent releases are a menace to real production use. Of course there
is no objection to a fluid development environment where frequent beta
versions are available, that is certainly desirable for ongoing testing
and development purposes.

But my view is that releases should be treated with the same intense
insistence on quality and perfection that applies to any software that
is intended to be used in a production environment.

Robert Dewar