[Info-vax] Open Source on OpenVMS - A Progress Report

[Steven Schweda]

ja wrote:

> One thing I have read frequently in this discussion and elsewhere is
> that "...HP should this..." and "...HP should that..." in the open
> source software world. It is just as well that few people in the, say,
> Linux, world do not sit around and wait for "someone" to do something.

   Gee.  Let me think about that for a millisecond.  It might
be in part because in the GNU/Linux world, say, they have, for
the past decade or two, had all the stuff which whiners like
me complain about being missing from the VMS C RTL.  It might
also be in part because in the GNU/Linux world, say, it's
possible to contribute code and get it adopted, as opposed to
creating one's one code which might someday be supplanted by
an incompatible implementation which is incorporated into VMS.
It might be in part because in the GNU/Linux world, say, one
wouldn't need to worry about a situation like the one where
the C++ standard library IOStreams facility is available on
Alpha only with code compiled with /FLOAT=G_FLOAT, while on
IA64 it's available only with code compiled with /FLOAT=IEEE.

   When the code in question is under the exclusive control of
the OS vendor, then it may be difficult for anyone else to
make significant changes to it.

   Duh.