[Info-vax] September 6, 2016 - new Roadmap and State of the Port updates now on VSI website

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <nr4auf$vjl$2 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley
<clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes: 

> > Check out Stallman's Gnu philosophy.  Basically, and I'm putting it 
> > lightly, anyone who uses proprietary software is some sort of fascist 
> > and should be shot on the spot.  I don't think Gnu wants VMS, and does 
> > VMS really need Gnu?  To be unix-compatible, perhaps, but the emphasis 
> > should be on portable data formats, not the tools to produce them.
> 
> With those comments in mind, what would you have done for the compiler
> situation which VSI faced ? Would you have also gone with LLVM or would
> you have written your own compilers from scratch ?

There is a German saying: In an emergency, the devil eats flies.

My point is that VMS and Gnu are not a good match.

I recently came across a Stallman web page where he points out real 
injustices in the world, such as child soldiers, chemical weapons, and 
so on, mixed with warnings to avoid certain companies because using 
their apps "forces" people to use non-free software.  He needs to get 
his priorities straightened out.  (Note also that the US department of 
defense is the largest Red Hat customer.)

Yes, not all people who use Gnu software (and there is much free 
software which is not Gnu---I have no objection to free software per se, 
only to the Gnu idea than anyone who uses anything else for any reason 
is a jerk) are as fanatic as Stallman, but I think it is fair to say 
that, at best, one will always see the join.  I don't think there is any 
chance of getting VMS welcomed with open arms into the Gnu community.  
One can of course get the code and port it (keeping the restrictions in 
mind), but in terms of getting VMS dependencies in the main source-code 
tree, like for ZIP and so on), I'm more sceptical.