--- "K.S. Bhaskar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Greg -- > > Normally, you are objective and reasoned.
Thanks. I'll grant that you did catch me on a bad day. > On this post, however, I > regret that I have several bones to pick with you. See below. > > -- Bhaskar > > On Tue, 2005-12-20 at 13:14 -0600, Greg Woodhouse wrote: > > --- Ronald Ponto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The list does seem to have a preponderance of GT.M users, but VOE > > runs > > [KSB] How I wish this were the case! Owing to the number of VA users > and the extensive use of non-GT.M implementations of MUMPS within the > VA, and owing to VOE, I think GT.M users are probably in a > non-trivial > minority. I'll grant you that VA personnel are not usually the ones to ask questions here, but that seems neither here nor there. True, VA medical centers do use Cache', but I don't know that I'd infer that new users are necessarily going to be adopters of one platform over the other. As an aside, I started to delete that sentence (twice), because I really do not means this to be a Cache' vs. GT.M or a Fidelity vs. InterSystems type message. Both products (and perhaps others) ought to have a place on this list. > > > on Cache' not GT.M. Ironically, I might be more ready to use GT.M > if > > the list didn't seem so lop-sided on the GT.M side. I don't have an > > > [KSB] It is probably a fair statement to say that there are more > newbie > users of VistA on GT.M on this forum (and of course newbie users need > more help and are more vocal than non-newbie users; besides people > ask > questions where they find their questions are answered). Yes. But isn't that what I was saying? That the focus of discussion here seems to be on GT.M. Maybe that's okay. > > > infinite amount of time, and certainly can't do everything I'd > like, > > but I think it would be very nice to see a portable implementation > > that > > could be distributed with VistA installed (even if not completely > > configured). I am not at all happy with the way Linux seems to be > the > > only OS that anyone wants to use for development. Again, I think I > > might be a bit more friendly to Linux if there were more of a > balance > > (and if the distribution weren't so "kute"). > > [KSB] Since I don't have the right to distribute Windows, or OS X, > the > choice comes down to Linux and *BSD variants. But there is nothing to stop you from installing *.msi files (for Windows) or *.mpkg files (for OS X). Is it really necessary to distribute an entire OS to distribute VistA? If it is, I'd submit that we have some serious work to do, because that just shouldn't be. > I really don't have a > strong personal preference between them. However since (a) I already > had a GT.M on Linux, and (b) Linux live CDs came before *BSD live > CDs, I > chose to release VistA on Linux. I felt that it was better to do > what > little I could even if I couldn't do everything. I certainly don't fault you for focusing on Linux. That's not what bothers me, it's the absence of anything else. > > >... > [KSB] A minor point, but your post suggests that Linux is not a > commercial operating system. Open source free software like Linux > and > GT.M on Linux are very much commercial software. Only, the licensing > terms are different, and the GPL gives the licensee more Freedom than > traditional software licenses (see > http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html for more an essay on > the topic). I suppose I could have said "proprietary" rather than "commercial". Is that any better? I guess I tend to avoid terms like proprietary and closed source because they have derogatory overtones that I'd rather avoid. > > For the record, I feel strongly enough about the importance of VistA > that I have offered more than once at the VistA Community Meetings > and > the VistA Community Calls to teach anyone interested, including > InterSystems, how to create a live CD of VistA on Cache. The offer > still stands. Good for you. Hey, a live CD bailed me out last weekend when I trashed the boot block on a Windows system, and it was necessary to boot Knoppix to restore it. > > As President Kennedy said, "ask not what your country can do for you; > ask what you can do for your country." An old Chinese proverb says > that > it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. I think I heard that once. :-) I would like to think that I do some good, but I don't have an infinite amount of time or energy. I can't do everything I'd like to, and there seems little point in embarking on a project such as this without at least a little "buy in". Why get > on a > soapbox about what other people are doing when they have done you no > harm? That's a fair point. There have been more than a couple of times that I've considered unsubscribing from Hardhats because I feel like it no longer fits my interests or goals, but I guess I feel strongly about VistA, too. > If you feel strongly about VistA on FreeBSD, why not turn your > energies to do something positive? How do you know that I am not? I thought of posting some of my work on fMUMPS, but so far as I know, only one other member of this list has expressed any interest in it. I've been putting a fair amount of work into interpreting imperative languages using something like Peyton-Jones' G-machine. I've been exploring the use of virtual machines in MUMPS for portability. Things I'd like to do, but for which I've had no time include tightening up Fileman and Kernel, perhaps incorporating them into a language library. I would love to see an embedded VistA, a device people could simply turn on. And you probably have no idea how much time I spend off list just answering questions. I hardly think it fair to say I am not doing anything! > I will gladly render what > assistance > I can for you to get VistA running on a FreeBSD live CD. > I may take you up on that, but I think I have a ways to go before I reach that point. === Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Interaction is the mind-body problem of computing." --Philip L. Wadler ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7637&alloc_id=16865&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
