wondering when/whether our 3.3.2 will arrive ...

[James Helman]

There are always bugs to be fixed.  But since the decision to produce
a release is entirely at SGI's discretion, it's hard to complain too
much when you don't receive one.  Most maintenance contracts leave it
entirely up to the vendor to decide if and when updates are
distributed.  For all I know, 3.3.2 might only fix some problem with
HyperChannels to Crays!  (But I doubt it.)  It may be dubious customer
relations to tell someone that after paying many $K for support, that
SGI won't send out a 3.3.2 tape even after one asks for it, but SGI
is within bounds on not sending it to everyone.

However, I agree that if SGI deemed the fixes important enough to make
a subrelease, I'd at least like to see a list of the bugs it addresses
and be given the opportunity to request it.  That would still save SGI
lots of distribution costs and would protect those customers who
believe they might be affected.  Bugs can be like minefields for
developers.  Pop!  You lose an hour.  Kabooom!  A month blasted off.
IRIX is pretty good really, only an occasional pop.  But if
deactivation kits are too expensive, a map would still be nice. ;-}

Jim Helman
Department of Applied Physics			Durand 012
Stanford University				FAX: (415) 725-3377
(jim at KAOS.stanford.edu) 			Work: (415) 723-9127