Wolfgang Lenerz writes: > Following the discussions at EIndhoven,here is what has been agreed upon, > Tony TEBBY also having agreed to it: > > In short:
Great stuff! Thanks to all who brought it about, not least of all TT himself! At last the mysteries unveiled and we'll be in control of our own destiny. This could be a new beginning - or the way to dusty death. Only time will tell. The nitty-gritty of the license agreement has to be clarified. I cant imagine that its purpose was to be obstructive in any way to legitimate development. The intention must be to avoid turning SMSQ/E into 1) a mess 2) a goldmine for the undeserving 3) Linux/E 4) WinDOS 5) Qdos a la DP (they figured Qdos wasnt entirely "compatible" (!) (and it shows)) IMHO the OS should be kept lean and mean, and not be bloated with everyone's pet add-ons, a la Windoze. It should be the kernel of what is required to run systems utilities, extensions and programs across a variety of different platforms. Thus PI should be in, but why Wman? Things should be in, but why Hotkeys? If these non-essential add-ons, and others yet to be written, were kept separate, each author could decide on his own policy of distribution to fit the case (and users whether they wanted them). System utilities and extensions that are generally useful across platforms and fall in with the general ethos and style could be kept together with, but separate from the SMSQ/E source tree. Platform-specific developers would see to it that SMSQ/E would load and run on their platform. Utilities to exploit specifics of that platform should be included only for that platform (as an SMSQ module) while basic tests for those facilities should be available for all platforms to make application developer's lives easier. Eg, the likes of MACHINE, PROCESSOR, HOSTOS, EMULATOR and DISP_TYPE (and their m/c equivalents) should be available across ALL SMSQ/E and Qdos-like systems so that application programs can take necessary action without having to peek and poke around the system variables and Thing lists. There are certain core functions that would benefit all platforms, eg slaving and the native file system, as well as some of the discussed improvements to PI and many more. But whos going to handle those, as they wont necessarily promote anyone's pet platform? (I hope Marcel hasnt lost heart after that nasty little attack the other day.) And that leads me on to my last point, which is that there are a lot of petty jealousies and tensions in our tiny (but dynamic!) backwater of the world which if left unchecked will lead to no end of mischief and could endanger the whole project. I suggest the list-moderator take culprits, who are rude, hurl abuse, throw tantrums and slam doors, or make unsubstantiated accusations, severely to task. A second offence should lead to immediate suspension or worse, depending on the gravity of the offence. This business is not only technical and social, it is very important to a lot of us and we should guard it vigilantly! Per
