From: tep@engr.uark.edu (Tim Peoples)
Subject: Be forwarned: Linux port of ingres does not work.
Summary: Hack hack away.
Keywords: linux ingres 
Reply-To: tep@engr.uark.edu
Organization: University of Arkansas
Organiztion: University of Arkansas, Dept. of Computer Systems Engineering
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 12:24:33 GMT

Greetings Linuxers,

   Firstly, I would like to thank Zeyd M. Ben-Halim for making a compilable
version of Ingres 8.9 for the Linux world.  But compilable is all it is.

   I hate to sound like a whining, babbling idiot but I really feel
compelled to post this.  It is in regard to the recent posts by
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim (zmbenhal@netcom.com) about his port of Ingres 8.9
to Linux.

   Although never mentioned in any of his previous posts to c.o.l., Mr.
Ben-Halim has informed me that he has yet to produce a running instance
of ingres89.  What follows is an email message from him to me:

>From netcom.com!zmbenhal Sun Oct  4 22:37:54 1992
>Return-Path: <zmbenhal@netcom.com>
>Received: from netcom2.netcom.com by engr.uark.edu with smtp
>	(Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0mbjGb-00014lC; Sun, 4 Oct 92 22:37 CDT
>Received: by netcom2.netcom.com (5.65/SMI-4.1/Netcom)
>	id AA21313; Sun, 4 Oct 92 20:38:41 -0700
>Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 20:38:41 -0700
>From: zmbenhal@netcom.com (Zeyd M. Ben-Halim)
>Message-Id: <9210050338.AA21313@netcom2.netcom.com>
>To: tep@engr.uark.edu
>Subject: Re: Problems running ingres
>Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
>In-Reply-To: <1992Oct5.022544.24510@engr.uark.edu>
>Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
>Cc: 
>Status: O
>
>In article <1992Oct5.022544.24510@engr.uark.edu> you write:
>

[ My post to c.o.l. deleted ]

>
>I've managed to run ingres without those errors (after appropriate hacks)
>but I also managed to mangle my sources. So I now have to download my own
>upload :-( The way to get over it is to put between #if 0 and #endif the
>code in .../source/support/ingres.y the does the locking in main(). look
>for the comment at the bottom of the function.
>
>In case you haven't figured it out I only did the port (ie. got the thing
>to compile) If you looking to simply RUN a RDBMS then I'd advice against it.
>If you are willing to hack on it then please do.
>
>Zeyd
>

   Now, the fact that this code requires some hacking to make it usable
is perfectly fine and not the issue here.  What has caused me to post is
the fact that Mr. Ben-Halim did not mention until his last paragraph in
the above email message that all he was able to do was compile the beast.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sure seems like, in this situation, 
he should have told the linux public that this package was a hacker's
delight and not yet usable.  I guess the blame should fall on me for being
stupid enough to assume that if a package is announced sans hacker bait,
that it will at least run (albeit with bugs) but run none the less.

   Don't get me wrong, I like to hack just as much as the next guy (and
I will be hacking on ingres) but the convenient omission of the phrase
"I have only been able to compile this.  Let's hack on it to get it
running on Linux." lead me to believe that the hacking had already been
done.

   To all those who are porting software to Linux: if you get a package
past the compile point and you wish to up-load it to one of the ftp sites
and you wish to announce it in c.o.l, then please please please put some
sort of disclaimer in your post to the fact that it is compilable and will
not yet run.  If Mr. Ben-Halim had done so, I probably would have still 
down loaded the code and hacked on it, but I would have at least known what
I was getting into before investing my time.

Thank you,

[ We now return to your regularly scheduled Linuxing ]

-- 

+--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Tim Peoples                          | The time has come the hacker said   |
| tep@engr.uark.edu                    | to talk of many things,             |
| Dept. of Computer Systems Engineering| of simms and sockets and semaphores |
| University of Arkansas, Fayetteville | of processes and pings....          |
+--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
|    I need no disclaimer; nobody listens to what I have to say anyway!!     |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+