Perl patches (was Re: shar 3.49 (part 2 of 2))

[Michael Meissner]

In article <1990Sep23.004118.2745 at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
xanthian at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

| I think the point is still being missed here. Larry Wall had, when he
| release perl, about 26 patches _in_hand_, but rather than make the first
| release at patch level 26, released patchlevel 0 and 26 patch postings. Good
| sense would suggest limiting the work of patching _when_ _the_ _patch_ _is_
| _in_ _hand_ to the site of origin, rather than multiplying the work by
| distributing unpatched code. This is not a call to stop using patch, not a
| call to stop distributing beta code, not a call to stop distributing
| patches, just a call to use some sense when doing software releases. Why the
| arguments?  Does someone think it made more sense the way Larry did it?  If
| so, why?  It caused more work, used more bandwidth, and came to the same
| product at the end.

My dim memory is that Larry sent the version 1 of perl off to
comp.sources.unix, and it sat there for a bit.  He also made it
available for anonymous FTP.  By the time the time c.s.u was ready to
post it, there were 26 patches.  I sometimes think that folks don't
realize how diverse the UNIX systems are out there (and that Larry's
code tends to poke in a lot of dark corners).

--
Michael Meissner	email: meissner at osf.org		phone: 617-621-8861
Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142

Do apple growers tell their kids money doesn't grow on bushes?