-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Interface scope incompatibility with Delphi Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:57:13 +0200

Op 2010-11-10 15:01, Michael Van Canneyt het geskryf:

This is open source: essentially a hobby project for us.

[not directed specifically to you as a person, just thinking out loud]

Maybe this little fact should be made public, and very clear on the front page of the FPC website. This will ensure no commercial entity will ever fall foolishly into the FPC trap. This will obviously benefit the FPC team too, because you will have less annoying users that actually try and use the product to make a living.

Graeme

Wtf, man? This is the reality with most oss. The idea is that forward thinking companies invest in the tools they use by employing someone to hack on them, or donate, or sponsor servers, etc.

Stop trolling, it wastes everyone's time.

Henry

Is there any difference with a commercial project? See Kylix: no more resources left, project stopped. The nice thing about FPC is: if something is really commercially important for you, you can still pay someone if the hobby developers don't do what you want.

The term 'Open source' says it all:
There are no guarantees, you get what you pay for.

Has been so since day 1, and can be read in each and every FPC source file:

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

It can't be stated more clear than this, I think.

Michael.

In "this case" [1] no commercial entity can ever use any product at all.

"this case":
The case that a feature required by someone is not added (or not even planed to be added).
[ Note: if you call it bug, instead of feature, read the end of the mail before commenting. ]

The cause of "this case" stated here may be relevant to projects driven by individuals in their spare time.

But the fact that for fpc "this case" is caused by the reason given, does not mean that "this case" does not apply to other products too.

Buy a copy of Delphi, (maybe even several copies of the enterprise version). That in no way guarantees that the makers of Delphi will in future add every feature you want to have. Or that they will at least plan to add it (even if it may take some time before they start). You will get a nice email back from marketing (well if you are lucky), but nothing more.
In fact in the past (and maybe still) in the case of Delphi, even bugs do not always get the attention, that users would like to see.

And all that, even Delphi is not developed by people who do it in their own spare time, Delphi has a team of developers paid to do nothing but develop Delphi.

That proves that "this case" applies, even if the reason in the quote is not given.

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I conclude, if commercial entities can only use software, if every feature request will be implemented, then they can not use any software. If they can live with feature requests being denied, then FPC is well usable for them

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As for the argument: it's not a feature, it's a bug:
- A bug is if software doe not behave as documented.
- FPC documents that you can not make any assumption when an interface is released.

About the documented Delphi-Compatibility: Maybe (and that may be a bu in the documentation, if so => but i did not check): FPC should document that Delphi compatibility means, following the documentation/specs from Delphi. There is no binary compatibility or any other compatibility on top of the docs from Delphi.

Martin

Graeme, I think things like this are better understood as resource problems. IMO, OSS is a systemic response to the intellectual property plundering/pillaging by big business like Microsoft. It enables developers to dedicate *as much time* as they like to build something beyond them while getting credit for it. Otherwise their God given talents are buried in a heap of corporate noise with little of of recognition or compensation.

The FPC and Lazarus projects are no different. They are propelled by dedicated developers who love to code and who at certain times weigh what is important and what is not. While they do have weight in decisions, money talks. If you have a feature you want, just post a bounty for it. I was VERY successful at getting what I need from the community especially if I were to offer to throw some $$$ for resolution.

Please, don't disrupt or offend the people dedicated to development. You've been pretty quick to point out flaws. But I think if it's FPC/Lazarus that you're trying to see in a better light, you would be better using the positive direction.

Every time you see something wrong, your first reaction has been to put the *team* on line line of fire... LOL. Just be nice. These guys have families to feed too.

Hi,

Please take this discussion to the fpc-other list, where it belongs.

Thanks,

Jonas
FPC mailing lists admin

But it IS documented since a long time:

See the section 'Reference counting' in the chapter on 'Interfaces', langauge reference guide.

It even explicitly mentions that it is different from Delphi, with example code and all.

Michael.