Subject: Re: [Free]DOS port?
From: Dom Lachowicz (doml@appligent.com)
Date: Tue Nov 06 2001 - 11:55:45 CST
On Tue, 2001-11-06 at 12:11, Filipi D. Vianna wrote:
> Why should anything in computer SCIENCE be pointless?
Porting AbiWord to plain DOS would be totally possible, and like all
things, we welcome outside support.
Porting AbiWord to DOS would *not* be pointless. I'd call it
"ill-advised" instead, at least for the efforts of AbiWord's core
developers, such as Sam and myself.
The thing is that not many people use DOS anymore, and even those people
who do are using some win32-based operating system lying on top of DOS.
From our perspective we developers need:
1) To fix bugs
2) To create new features
3) To port AbiWord to platforms and maintain/update our current ports
Since we are a volunteer project, we are very strapped for time and
other resources, and thus must heavily prioritize these above demands.
I estimate that about 95% of our user-base is running either the Linux
or Windows operating system. Thus, these are our two most
heavily-targeted (and worked-on) platforms. I would guess that *at most*
1% of our total user-base would *ever* run AbiWord on FreeDos,
regardless of how good our port to FreeDos was (or how good FreeDos is,
for that matter).
It does not make sense for us to do this port, especially since non of
our developers are likely to start running FreeDos anytime soon. We have
no incentive. However, you are more than free to submit patches that
would ultimately lead to a working AbiWord on FreeDos. I wouldn't hold
my breath, though.
Oh, and yes, just as in real-life, there are pointless things to do in
computer (or any) science. AbiWord on FreeDos would be an exercise in
futility.
Cheers,
Dom
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Nov 06 2001 - 11:59:49 CST