From: talley@ashleigh.Kodak.COM (Brian K. Talley)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: READMEs (was: Be forwarned: Linux port of ingres does not work.)
Keywords: linux ingres
Date: 6 Oct 92 11:40:30 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.linux
Organization: Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY

In article <1992Oct5.122433.7105@engr.uark.edu> tep@engr.uark.edu writes:
>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:

[email deleted]

I'd be careful doing stuff like this, if I were you.  If you have permission
to publically post private email, then fine, but it's been my experience that
it's inappropriate (possibly illegal?) to post email without permission.

[text on whys and wherefores of compiling/hacking/running/posting deleted]

>   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,
>
>| 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 agree.  I, too, would like to see a little more documentation when stuff is
posted.  I know people are doing this out of the kindness in their hearts, and
for the love of it, and so I have no real cause to complain.  I am also very
grateful to everyone who has made Linux as nice as it is! All I suggest is that
folks who submit stuff to the ftp sites also send along a quick blurb on the
state of the software (see above: compiles but doesn't run), and what is
specifically required to run it.

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday pulling over the TeX distribution from
tsx-11 only to find that there are several libraries I don't have that I need.
I don't know if these libraries are available in 0.97, or with the latest X,
or with the latest gcc - there's no documentation on them.

Unfortunately, it will be a while before I have enough time to continue working
on getting TeX working...I thought I'd be able to get it working the *first*
time.

Sorry if this comes across as complaining - I don't intend it to.  It just
seems to me that it'd be quicker to include a few extra lines in the README
rather than spend the time replying to several people having problems.

--Brian
__________
Brian Talley, Systems Consultant, Eastman Kodak Research Labs, Rochester, NY
talley@acadia.kodak.com

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux