Hello Maurice!

17 Oct 03 14:28, Maurice Kinal wrote to Sean Dennis:

 MK> However, speaking as a Linux user, I'd appreciate versions of them
 MK> aimed squarely at Linux and not merely as a tool for any
 MK> preconcieved notion that Linux exists merely as an alternative to
 MK> Windows, OR that somehow all users of Linux have some evil,
 MK> demented plan to destroy MS, OR - even worse - that somehow Linux
 MK> users owe Windows users something by providing them with tools
 MK> that MS doesn't bother providing their own customers.

Speaking as a Netware, DOS, OS2, 95, 98SE, W2K, and (temporarily former)
Linux-user, cross-platform compatibilty and interoperability is not a MS vs
Linux issue.

Maximus and Squish were available in simultaneous DOS and OS2 releases years
before MS figured out how to make any version of Windows juggle a modem and
Fidonet software.  Windows versions didn't happen until NT came along, and
that was in Maximus 3.0x in '96.

Some of us look at the ability of multiple platform-specific EXEs to share
the same single installation directory and configuration file(s) as a
feature and a selection criteria.  It is true for almost all of the Fido
apps I use: Binkleyterm, Squish, Maximus, BinkD, Irex, Golded, QNode,
DNews, etc.  I use at least two of the typically three minimum platform
versions that I have access to of each of these applications regularly. 
These programs have been able to coexist across DOS, OS2, Win32, and Linux
flavors, some dating back to the '89-'90 timeframe.  It would be nice if
the Linux Max and Squish ports of 2003 can too, since it has been a
standard feature of these programs since their inception.

Scott has already set a good example of how OS-specific features can be
combined into a unified superset without breaking any of the individual
subsets.  The same can be done (carefully) with Linux-specific
enhancements. The trick is not to redefine existing behaviors in ways that
break the functionality of existing setups.  So every "but wait a
minute, that'll break so-and-so..." isn't an attempt to keep the
Linuxman down to the "lowly" level of the MSman. It's just a
design objective that has functional advantages while maintaining "our
Maximus" over "your Maximus" and "my Maximus".

.\\ike

--- GoldED 2.50+