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Date:      Tue, 26 Sep 1995 18:12:39 -0700
From:      "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
To:        Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Cc:        kelly@fsl.noaa.gov, gryphon@healer.com, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-ports@freebs.org
Subject:   Re: ports startup scripts 
Message-ID:  <24295.812164359@time.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 26 Sep 1995 17:22:48 PDT." <199509270022.RAA08773@phaeton.artisoft.com> 

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> The product is QA'd with the validation suite.  2 hours were required for
> the validation suite, which is interesting, considering POSIX validation
> takes less time to run.

Sorry, this statement simply leads me to believe that you've never
worked on anything of significant size or complexity.  2 hours is
about how long it took to brief the QA team on how to structure the
run at most large ISVs I've worked at! :-)  If you got the results back
in 3 or 4 days you considered it a rush job.

Plus it's an on-going thing.  You need to re-QA on *every* point
release you might make for that platform.  You ever worked in a Crosby
method "zero defects" shop?  There are *procedures* for all this stuff and
checklists to be followed.  I don't care how bloody well written the
software was, in a lot of cases this is simply *not* a technical
problem!  It's a problem of "1 platform = 1 overall pain in the butt,
always"

Multiply this by 6 and you're lucky if you can sit down.  No holy
grail of software design will save you from going through regression
tests as complex as certain types of SDI targetting software, to say
nothing of the paperwork.  Sorry.

You also presuppose an idea world where I have the *choice* of writing
god's gift to portable code and aren't simply stuck with porting a
large legacy application to all these new platforms.  The times where
I actually got to write a major shelf application from scratch and
according to my standards can be counted on the fingers of a penguin!

Usually the scenario is that the Windows weenies get to write it as a
Windows app because they only represent about 500 times the revenue
you do and the 500 pound gorilla gets to sleep wherever he wants,
and you're stuck trying to port it to UNIX.  WABI?  Don't make me laugh
until tears run down my face.

						Jordan



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