Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 09:52:40 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199705241352.JAA20405@delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: mert0407 AT sable DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <5m627c$mqt@news.ox.ac.uk> (mert0407@sable.ox.ac.uk)
Subject: Re: ?? 2.00 -> 2.01
Precedence: bulk


> Why were the patches abandoned? Back in the v1 days, there were patches to
> add to old distributions... is this no longer possible? Surely much of the
> code comes out roughly the same, from v2-compiled to v2.01-compiled?

Many reasons, including:

* Many people couldn't figure out how to deal with patches.

* Many people forgot to install them.

* Many people didn't know what they were for.

* Many patch sets were as big as the zips anyway.

* Generating patches is harder than just redistributing.

* The patches didn't always come out right.

* From 2.0 to 2.01, many things *did* change.