Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Tim Mooney) · Mon, 16 Dec 1996 17:08:01 -0600

re...

> Be that as if may . . . however, the current way in which EPICS is
> supported/distributed/maintained requires that EVERYONE starts off with the
> generic sources and build the system up to whatever level serves their
> purposes. When versions kick up, it's go back to the drawing board and
> start all over again. 
> 
> <Speaking dryly>, I doubt that the world needs *that* many experts.
> 
> What people *want* is more of an off-the-shelf product . . . is that such a
> bad thing?

People *say* that's what they want, but they don't behave as though
that's what they want.  In my experience of trying pretty hard (not to
say succeeding) to give people a statically linked package that works
out of the box, the *first* thing people do is chuck it, ask for the
source code, take it apart, port it to hardware it's never seen before,
delete any weird looking code that doesn't provide an immediately
obvious benefit, and modify it to do something it was never intended to
do even as part of a system that at one time really did work I swear.
*THEN* they compile it, and *THEN* they run it, and soon they
understand it well enough to make it do what they want anyway--which
isn't anything at all like whatever idiot idea was in the original
author's mind, doncha know.

This is pretty much the way we work, isn't it?  Why ask for something
we'd never use, when there's precious little development effort to
spend on the things we really do care about.

Tim

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System