[rescue] GNU != Unix (was: PC v. PeeCees? (was: IBM hard

[Eric Dittman]

> > > > but why does Sun make needs replacing?
> > > Because a lot of GNU stuff is written by Linux weenies, who don't (want
> > > to) know that there is somthing beyond the Linux / GNU horizon. gmake
> > > only Makefiles are one symptom, an other, and much worse, is C code
> > > that can't be compiled with anything else than gcc. Not to speak about
> > > "all the world is a 32 bit litle endian machine". etc. etc. etc. 
> > 
> > Portability issues have existed long before Linux was around.
> > I can remember trying to get software to compile on A/UX that
> > had problems due to bad programming practices.
> 
>   Sure they have.  But this is a slightly different problem...it's
> software written specifically for Linux, not for UNIX...and [sometimes
> implicitly] advertised as "portable" or "UNIX-like" software.

And before that it was SunOS, x.yBSD, SxRy, etc.  Expecting
portability to a different Un*x platform for a program written
on another Un*x platform is wishful thinking.

I blame this on a combination of lazy programming and poor
documentation.  Failure to test is another problem.

Poor testing and lazy programming have plagued the Un*x world
for a long time, for all distributions and kernels (think of
all the buffer-overrun exploits that still show up).
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman at dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/