Hi Albert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Albert Wagner" <alwagner@xxxxxxxx>
To: "FAM" <fam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: [fam] OK, I got make to succeed
> Hi, Michael.
>
> One always walks a thin line in dealing with the author of open source
> software. A good user wants to offer feedback regarding problems
> encountered. But at the same time that user must be cautious not to offend
> the author. Most often the author is delighted at the feedback because
> feedback is the essence of what makes open source work.
> Although I do think that the script is in need of upgrade, please accept my
> comment as an attempt at constructive criticism. If this offends you, then
> please accept my apologies. I am grateful to both you and OSS.SGI for making
> this very useful package available.
I do appreciate user feedback. :-)
I am actually not the FAM author, and most of the criticisms you raise relate
to code written by the original authors or past maintainers. I especially
appreciate that a lot of users dislike the Makefiles (and the install/rpm
targets in particular). It is my understanding that the Makefiles were designed
for SGI-internal use, and greatly help automating the installation in some
environments. I personally don't like them either, and am planning on removing
this automation, but:
a) I need to make sure that I'm not breaking anything for existing users
b) I don't know GNU autotools and m4 very well
c) I don't have much time to do all this
You can expect the Makefiles to change in the next major release, but I can't
promise when this will be.
I believe the other two issues you mention (libtool problems and the CLEANFILES
make target) have been fixed in the latest release (FAM 2.6.8).
If I seemed abrupt, it was because these issues have all been raised previously.
If you had read the FAM FAQ (http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/faq.html) and the
FAM mailing list (http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/mail.html), you would know
this.
These issues are also logged under that FAM OSS Bugzilla category (this is
referenced more than once in the FAM project pages) as problems that have either
been recently fixed, or are planned to be fixed in an upcoming release. If you
have read the above-mentioned documentation, and believe that any of the above
issues are not documented, please tell me what is missing, and I will add it to
the FAQ.
As this sort of open source work doesn't directly make SGI any money (or at
least
that's what they tell me ;-)), I must mainly concentrate on other tasks, and try
to
work on FAM OSS when I can. Please have patience, and try to reduce my workload
by
doing some research first before asking for help.
I thank you for your interest, and I hope this clears some things up. It's
nothing personal. :-)
If you feel the need to continue this, please mail me privately.
Thanks
--
MICHAEL WARDLE
SGI Desktop & Admin Software
Adacel Technologies Limited
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