Re: Regarding the ULTRIX and OSF1 compats

> On Mar 16, 2019, at 2:49 PM, Bob Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>=20
> As a list member for as long as this list has been around, and beta =
tester for the Vax versions in the 90s I think, (Hey Bilquist!,Mouse) =
and alpha versions,
> I can attest to Dave's knowledge. His head works rather well.

Indeed, I think we should all maintain civility in this discussion =
(</me> wags finger at Maxime for his "fat-ass" remark ... I'm not the =
oldest nor wisest guy around these parts, but I am old/wise enough to =
know that such ad hominem attacks seldom result in the outcome one is =
hoping to achieve)...

> Msr Villard, apologies, but half a decade of involvement ain't squat. =
Are you reviving some skills from our long departed Vax guru? I won't =
invoke his name, but you could practice his style of comment, both in =
ferocity and aplomb. The Greater Baltimore area still misses him, and =
you are not his equal.

...however, just because he's a fresh face in the crowd doesn't mean his =
position lacks and underlying wisdom.  Ageism cuts both ways, and it's =
not fair in either instance.

BUT... if you're going to wield that argument... I think it's fair to =
say that I've been around the block, particularly when it comes to the =
Alpha port... cgd@ is, of course, the guy who made it happen, but back =
in the day, Alpha was one of my primary development platforms, and I =
spent considerable effort improving the Alpha port.  Go ahead, check the =
logs.

This is all to say -- I've got some skin in this game, and I bring a =
perspective as to the utility of the code in question.  And I agree =
*completely* with what Maxime is doing.

Raise your hand if you EVER used COMPAT_OSF1.  (</me> raises hand).  =
Anyone else?  I can wait...

(I think it's telling that this conversation has been happening =
on-and-off on port-alpha for several weeks now and literally no one has =
piped up to say that they're using COMPAT_OSF1/...)

As to the argument "well, hey, maybe people don't read the mailing =
list!", my response is "That's a real bummer for them, because we're not =
wizards and can't send them an owl with important announcements scrawled =
on parchment no matter where they are in the world."  Our system doesn't =
have any telemetry being fed into Splunk to tell us how much a given =
feature is being used, or what the most popular Ethernet driver is.  And =
I can imagine the fury that would result if someone even proposed such a =
telemetry system.  So, we use what we have -- the mailing lists.  That's =
why they exist!  Ours is a platform where a little effort on the part of =
the end-user is basically required in order to inform decisions.  I'm =
not passing judgement on that either way, just stating a fact.

-- thorpej