Re: GNU Prolog Project

[Roberto Bagnara]

Daniel Diaz wrote:
> Dear Roberto,
>
> I'm sorry you are disappointed by GNU Prolog. It is true that I cannot 
> devote as much time as I'd like to GNU Prolog. Since many years I have a 
> lot of other duties together with some personal constraints which 
> seriously limit the amount of "free time" I can devote to GNU Prolog. 
> I'm the first to regret this situation.
>
> However, saying GNU Prolog is unmaintained, is clearly exaggerated. I 
> have released a stable version in January fixing several bugs and 
> including new ports. I collect all bug reports and, when I have enough 
> time, I fix some of them and release a version. But I mainly spend the 
> little time that I have to design the next version (V2). This version 
> will be a big step forward but will need deep code rewritings. Thus I 
> try to set up a stable development team (4 developers would be nice) for 
> this new version.
>
> Again, I'm sorry GNU Prolog no longer satisfies you but this does not 
> justify the aggressiveness of your post.

Dear Daniel,

what aggressiveness are you talking about?  Perhaps you refer to the
fact that I said that in the archives of this list and of address@hidden
there are several bug reports to which the official maintainer did not even
bother to reply?  But I can prove this: I sent the same bug report (against
different versions of GNU Prolog) on 19/10/2004, 22/12/2004, 06/07/2005
and 10/13/2007;  and the official maintainer did not even bother to reply
(not even a reply of the form "noted it" or "will fix it as soon as I have
time" or "here is a workaround" or "please provide me with a patch"...
nothing at all, something that I consider not very polite).  Not to talk
about the bug concerning registers and the foreign language interface.
I have no doubts that the official maintainer may have very good reasons
for this behavior, but the logical consequence is that GNU Prolog is,
according to the meaning I personally give to the words, essentially,
i.e., as a matter of facts, un-maintained.  I do not mean to be aggressive,
only to call things and situations with what, in my opinion, is their name.

By the way, I am glad to know (only now) that you are actually collecting
bug reports: I would have appreciated a one line message saying that
in 2004.

> I develop and maintain GNU 
> Prolog for free as an open source product expecting it helps some users. 

This is not the point: we are all volunteers and develop software for
free as open source or free software products.  This does not mean
that we don't have any obligations with respect to other people: for
example, if we encourage people to submit bug reports we should feel
compelled to at least acknowledge them in some way.  I would put
it the other war around: given that we are volunteers, given that
no one is pushing us to do anything, there are no excuses for not
doing things properly.  If I cannot or do not want to deal with bug
reports for my projects I can simply stop soliciting them or
even state that I do not wish to receive them;  I can post
a request for help and appoint someone else as the "bug manager";
I can step down as a maintainer;  I can promote a more open development
model; ... silently ignoring but reports is definitely not my only option.

> It clearly not your case, I thus suggest you to use other "better, 
> maintained, supported systems", "some of them may be what you are 
> looking for" (sic).

I do, thanks: I use SWI-Prolog for all my Prolog projects.  But,
in order to serve my users, I need to maintain a couple of components
that interface to GNU Prolog.  Since I am a volunteer, I could simply
remove GNU Prolog from the list of supported systems.  However, the
way I see it, I believe I have obligations with respect to my users
and to the GNU Project (on which I believe very much [*]) and I will not
do it unless absolutely necessary.

> Sincerely.

I appreciate your sincerity.
All the best,

  Roberto

[*] There are other Prolog systems that, in my opinion, are not really
    maintained, by the way.  However, since their name does not begin
    with "GNU", I care less;  I think that, even if they do not
    treat users and bug reporters the way they deserve, this will not
    affect the reputation of the GNU Project.

--
Prof. Roberto Bagnara
Computer Science Group
Department of Mathematics, University of Parma, Italy
http://www.cs.unipr.it/~bagnara/
mailto:address@hidden