Re: [Fsfe-uk] Newham: Richard Steel speaks (Techworld)

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-01-25 19:00:20 +0000 Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote:

> Is there an alternative? (Proprietary-ness notwithstanding, that is -
> this is a similar problem to Chris' RAD problem). My instinct says 
> there
> isn't, in so far as I don't know of a portable macro-based solution.

Some things might be doable with portable macros. I don't know, as 
this is a bit outside my specialism (which is why I don't say much on 
Chris' RAD problem), but that's the sort of thing developers looking 
at whether macros are a viable solution should know. It seems 
completely unrealistic to think that your application will be able to 
run forever on an unchanged platform. If nothing else, hardware 
upgrades will force platform upgrades eventually and even 
compatibility between versions of the same development platform can be 
dicey. The software developer who doesn't try to do some planning for 
porting is making a false saving. They are just creating huge deferred 
costs.

> > Other than that, it seems that we're progressing along the old 
> > phrase: 
> > first, they ignore you; then, they fight you; finally, you win.
>
> Netscape is an excellent counterexample, however ;)

Bad example IMO. Only being held down, not really lost yet. Fight 
continues.

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