[Nevin writes:] > What really saddens me is the sheer amount of negative energy this > community espouses towards Microsoft. This certainly isn't the Icon > community of my youth. It used to be a place that encouraged, not > discouraged, as many platforms as possible. Not anymore.
Heh heh, I beg to differ a bit, but its not because what you said wasn't poignant and worth pondering. We definitely are not the Icon community, and the software development industry is not what it was then, but we espouse most or all of Icon Project's values. We will always be a diverse community that encourages and is driven by whatever efforts volunteers and sponsors undertake. So: as many platforms as possible, yes, driven by whomever wishes to use a given platform badly enough to port to it. Its great for Sudarshan to port to .Net, the question is whether you will help him do it. :-) I've been supporting Microsoft platforms since I added "multiple, fixed regions" in order to get 16-bit MS-DOS Icon past the 64K limits on string and block heaps. Besides an ongoing major effort to keep Windows Unicon on par with Linux Unicon that started with networking and most recently includes the 3D graphics, right now I am encouraging volunteer efforts related to .Net and PocketPC. This isn't because I like Microsoft (I used to), it is because I want Unicon programs to run wherever users might wish to run them. To sum up: Unicon wants to run on all platforms, including ones from Microsoft. Pragmatics aside, Microsoft bashers are entitled to declaim them as immoral, boycott them, etc. Personally I became rabidly anti-Microsoft gradually, in response to specific technical, economic and ethical issues, and I enjoy Microsoft bashing as a form of light entertainment rather than negative energy, kind of like complaining about government, the phone company, etc. It is good for teasing Microsoft-employee friends and former students, and doesn't change the fact that most users run on Microsoft clients. Nevin, if you want a more balanced or pro-Microsoft view to exist within the Unicon community, why don't you recruit us some Microsoft developers or help make the Microsoft ports of the language so good that programmers will choose to use them. :-) Cheers, Clint ------------------------------------------------------- The SF.Net email is sponsored by: Beat the post-holiday blues Get a FREE limited edition SourceForge.net t-shirt from ThinkGeek. It's fun and FREE -- well, almost....http://www.thinkgeek.com/sfshirt _______________________________________________ Unicon-group mailing list Unicon-group@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/unicon-group
