Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 10:24:32 +0200 (CEST) From: Malte Lance <malte.lance@gmx.net> To: Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@serv.net> Cc: griepent@wias-berlin.de, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Floating point exceptions on i386 and FreeBSD-2.2.X Message-ID: <13787.55346.810743.132179@neuron.webmore.de> In-Reply-To: <199808191806.LAA12320@ralf.serv.net> References: <199808180818.AA14374@hilbert.wias-berlin.de> <13786.45438.762966.929694@neuron.webmore.de> <199808191806.LAA12320@ralf.serv.net>
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Ken McGlothlen writes:
> malte.lance@gmx.net (Malte Lance) writes to griepent@wias-berlin.de:
>
> | Man ... i really can not imagine why an intelligent person should blurb
> | something like this:
> |
> | > It is a pity but sticking to Linux seems to be the only way for me to get
> | > reliable numerical results.
> |
> | in the given context to a public list ??? Are you really a mathematician who
> | can solve problems on his own as they arise or are you just Mr. "Linux does
> | this better for me ..."-whining-basher ?
> |
> | I don't give any explanation nor solution to your whining-problem since Dave
> | Bodenstab already did (btw his reply to you was excellent and let's you look
> | like a little pussy).
>
> That is about as inappropriate a response as I've seen on a public support
> list, ever. Whining about perceived lack of features or bugs is actually an
> appropriate, if occasionally annoying, activity on the part of people who
> encounter things they don't expect on a system. Saying that they look like a
> little pussy is completely out-to-lunch, and does a disservice to the list, and
> to the perception of FreeBSD.
It depends.
First of all Mr. Griepentrog said in his post, he was using FreeBSD
for 3 years and was very satisfied with it.
Then in the same paragraph he tells us about his recent disappointment
with FreeBSD. Why ? Because he encounters frequent FP-exceptions.
Then he states to be a mathematician. Every mathematician i know of
has at least heard of machine-precision and of numerical-analysis
and has at least once written a progrma in some language to compute
the machine-precision of FP-numbers.
Therefor i thought to myself, this man should at least be able to
give "apropos float" and get "... fpsetprec(3), fpgetprec(3),
fpgetmask(3), ...". Instead he claimed "... Linux does better ..."
Finally you are right. My post was somewhat aggressive and my fault
was to assume the "instead" in the sentence above.
(Maybe i've heard far to much "Linux does this better ... Linux
does that better ..."-discussions in the past).
So please Mr Griepentrog, take my apologize. My previous email
to you was rude and i try to do better next time.
Also apologize to the questions-list for pestering the list
with my personal bad feelings.
Malte.
>
> FreeBSD is, IMHO, a stronger, more consistent implementation of Unix than Linux
> is. It needs every positive perception it can get. Answering misstatements
> about FreeBSD with insults can only drive people away. ("Yeah, FreeBSD seems
> cool, but don't bother trying to get support from the mailing list---those guys
> are jerks!")
>
> (I can think of a particular database development group that could have learned
> this lesson a while back. I stated a view which got me savaged in private by
> one of the developers a while back, and now I'm looking into commercial
> solutions just so I don't have to put up with that crap. And keep in mind, I
> was a big fan of it at the beginning. No more.)
>
> In any case, you might want to reconsider your response the next time you send
> in a helpful answer.
>
> Thanks.
>
> ---Ken McGlothlen
> mcglk@serv.net
>
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