Re: new DOS source
- Posted by jimcbrown (admin) Jul 07, 2013
- 4138 views
Well, by analogy, there is plenty of interest in using Windows or Linux. But very few people have the ability to maintain the sourcecode of these projects
The Linux kernel is quite large, thus it's difficult for one person to maintain the entire thing. However, if we break it down to the level of, say, individual kernel modules, then I'd contend that there are plenty of people around who use the Linux kernel who can maintain one individual piece. (I say this as someone who had worked on and played with kernel modules in the past.)
Of course, there's Joe Schmoe who isn't a programmer at all, but likes to use Linux/GNU because it's free (as in beer) and Joe is enough of a power user to be able to deal with upgrading distros and so on. Joe can't fix bugs in the kernel itself, but that's not a problem as long as there are programmers who are willing to maintain the Linux kernel.
Windoze is a much better example in some ways. It's not open source, so if M$ decides to drop it (hypothetically of course), then it'll be dead, no matter how many users want to keep it up and running. This has already happened to OS/2. In it's day, A/UX (Apple's Unix) also had many fans. Because of legal (e.g. copyright) restrictions, the number of people who were able and willing to keep these OSes alive dropped to zero.
The case of the DOS edition of Euphoria is different - it's not the copyright restrictions but the lack of the right kind of low level knowledge that prevents the current devs and the current users of euid/ex.exe from being able to keep it going. This is a much better situtation, as someone might one day come along who can breathe it back to life (whereas to revive OS/2, someone would have to right buy out the various legal rights from M$ and IBM and who knows who else).
Excuse my bad english please.
What i meant is: You only need a maintainer for the project 'if' there is any interest.
If there is no interest, then you do not need a maintainer.
Ah, ok. I understand now.
That's all I'am askin for. Just put a working copy of the project in 'one' place and give everyone interested a chance to use it.
Again, just put the source togehter, in one place, so the not so experienced developers have a starting point.
No argument from me on this point.
But i think if there is a download for a 'working' project, then the discussion about a Dos-Port will end...
I doubt it. After all, technically, this is already true - 3.1.1 source and binaries have been available for years - and still are.
