pdf toolchain notes & suggestions

[Karsten Wade]

On Wed, 2004-09-29 at 09:40, Dave Pawson wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-09-28 at 22:16, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> > 
> > No, I think it's more a case that Karsten is trying to cleave to the
> > purpose of the Fedora Project as a 100% free O/S. Violating that
> > principle on the docs side just means that, at best, we fail to support
> > or act on a free alternative; at worst, we support a crippled O/S.
> > 
> > IMHO, anyone should be able to use a totally free O/S to "bootstrap" the
> > building of any component thereof, including docs.
> 
> I guess I'd consider that an extremist view. Especially for a tool to
> produce documentation, a third order product. How far back does this
> view go?

So ... should we abandon all this stuff and use Framemaker + SGML?

Intel makes a proprietary C/C++ compiler, icc.  Some call icc a "better"
compiler because it optimizes for x86 (obvious how it gains that
advantage), and these same people wonder why we should use a free
compiler (gcc) since there is a better alternative available?

Forget the idealism for a second.  The technical reason is simple.

If I write a program, compile it, and six months later get a bug report,
how do I know if the bug is in my program or the compiler?  I don't
know, and I can't know, because I can't look at the source to figure it
out.

If I run my C++ program on Linux and it causes the kernel to fall over,
when I report that to the kernel developers, they are going to want to
see my program, including Makefile.  "Gee," they will say, "this looks
like you compile with Intel's proprietary compiler.  Since I can't see
the source code for icc, it's impossible for me to know where or what
your problem is.  I can't help you, sorry."  

Okay, they won't really say "sorry."

It is impossible to debug something happening in a toolchain if there is
a link in the chain that is closed source.

Take the above example, substitute "XEM" for "icc" and "FOP" for "gcc".

The *entirety* of Fedora _must_be_ free.  The point of Fedora
documentation is _not_ to build a toolchain that will run on Solaris,
HP-UX, AIX, Windows, or OSX.  It is to build a toolchain that runs under
Fedora.  To do that, the packages should be at least part of the Core
packages, and in either case (Core or Extras) they _must_ be 100% free.

It's not like I made up these rules, although I do approve of them with
all my heart.

'Nuff said.

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE, Tech Writer
a lemon is just a melon in disguise
http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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