Could we agree to disagree and come together on improvements andclean-up?

[Brian Gladman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NightStrike" <nightstrike at gmail.com>
To: "Torbjorn Granlund" <tg at swox.com>
Cc: <xkey at yahoo.com>; <gmp-discuss at swox.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 1:38 AM
Subject: Re: Could we agree to disagree and come together on improvements 
andclean-up?


> On 5/30/08, Torbjorn Granlund <tg at swox.com> wrote:
>> Why do people insist on being so abstract on GMP improvements matters?
>
> Here's a specific -- Win64
>
> It is stagnating our development on mingw-w64.sf.net, and is holding
> up the entire gcc toolchain for that target platform.

You haave my strong support for this, as there is a critical need for a high 
quality alternative to the Microsoft development tools for 64-bit 
applications on Windows.

Microsoft have an effective monopoly here and this puts free and open source 
applications developers at a very serious disadvantage because it undermines 
their ability to provide fully effective alternatives to some of the major 
commercial software applications on the 64-bit Windows OS's.  By the time 
the 32 to 64 bit transition on Windows really starts in earnest, Microsoft 
and other major proprietary applications suppliers will have achieved 
substantial marketplace lock-in since they will have been allowed to play 
with little competition from free/open source developers in this nascent 
market because there has been no effective GCC based alternative to the 
Microsoft tools.

I must say that I find it ironic that Torbjorn has accused me of promoting 
Microsoft tools when it now transpires that, by blocking the GMP changes 
needed to deliver an alternative 64-bit toolset for the 64-bit Windows OS's, 
he has done far, far more than I ever could to promote and sustain this 
particular Microsoft monopoly.

     Brian Gladman