On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 05:17:15PM -0000, Darrell May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Charlie Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > > As Gordon says, if you would like to do this, go right ahead, using > > one of strategies he outlined. > > Unfortunately of the strategies Gordon outlined, the key missing ingredient > was Mitel's offer to provide any assistance. > [...]
To that particular point, let me take verbatim extracts from my previous reply: > Gordon Rowell wrote on Thu Oct 31, 2002: > [...] > We temporarily lost the ability to block false positive relay tests in > 5.5 and deemed this important enough to fix in 5.6. > [...] > This was the only supported feature lost in the conversion to > mailfront in 5.5 and it was an annoyance rather than a showstopper. > [...] > We are busy working on 5.6 and we won't be allocating time to add new > features to previous releases. > [...] > I'm not aware of any vendor who adds new features to old releases, and > we're certainly not intending to do so. > [...] > - If you need to build mailfront for 5.5, you have the parts you need > - If you need to enhance mailfront, you have the source > - If you need someone else to enhance mailfront, offer to pay them, as > we did > - If you enhance mailfront or e-smith-mailfront, you must release the source So: - We recognised a deficiency (albeit minor) in 5.5 - We fixed it in 5.6 by contracting that work out to someone with the specific skills and knowledge rather than using our developer time on the problem - We released all sources to the fixed packages under the GPL - We are busy working on 5.6 - We will not be allocating time to add new features to 5.5 Yes, you're quite correct - there was no offer from Mitel to help on adding new features to a previous release, and that answer has been consistent throughout. We won't back-port FormMagick to releases prior to 5.5 and we won't back-port this minor fix to 5.5 - the time to do so is better spent on 5.6 and beyond. As for devinfo - I too worry about where it is heading. I would like to see development activity, but the list has been extremely quiet on that front. - Mitel hosts this list as a service to both Mitel and the developer community. We gain some benefit from it, and the community receives a solid server release, released under the GPL. - We continue to attempt to foster new development here. We will answer development questions that either interest us or are important to our future directions. We also reserve the right to not answer questions. - We continue to offer to host contributed packages and HOWTOs on our site and mirrors around the world. - We will continue to redirect requests for technical support from the list. Mitel offers technical support to its paying customers. Mitel also hosts user-supported bulletin boards for user-supported technical support. - Mitel developers normally appear on this list wearing their personal hats. OK, I'll put my "Director, Engineering" hat on for this mail, since it's become a policy statement. - Mitel will continue to determine the priority for its development staff and the contents of any future releases. We will accept bug reports and suggested improvements at "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", but we alone will determine whether and/or when the bug report or suggestion will be incorporated according to our internal prioritisation. - Mitel invests heavily in projects which devinfo cannot. In 5.5 we added I18N infrastructure throughout and L10N into English and French. In 5.6 we have done the work to convert automatically to the 2.4 kernel. These are both huge projects - it is any wonder that we don't allocate time to add new features to previous releases? - And finally, this list is unmoderated - a policy decision I endorse and control wearing my official hat. This causes issues for me as the forum is used as a place to "beat up on" Mitel - that seems inappropriate, doesn't it? Yes, let's co-operate on development. But we, like anyone else on this list, determine how much time and effort we wish to put into any project. Gordon -- Gordon Rowell [EMAIL PROTECTED] Director, Engineering Network Server Solutions Group http://www.e-smith.com/ Mitel Networks Corporation http://www.mitel.com/smallbusiness -- Please report bugs to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] (only) to discuss security issues Support for registered customers and partners to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Searchable archive at http://www.mail-archive.com/devinfo%40lists.e-smith.org
