Re: CYGWIN AND POSTGRESS

Jason Tishler wrote:

...
> BTW, do you understand that I volunteer (significant amounts of) my
> (very limited) free time to provide a pre-built Cygwin PostgreSQL
> package?  Before I got involved, one had to port and/or patch the source
> and build it for Cygwin themselves.  IMNSHO, most Cygwin PostgreSQL
> users are better off with my pre-built package than without it.

Amen to that.

Jason's contributions are immeasurable, and I for one hope he's around 
for a long time to come.  Thanks for all the work you have saved me 
alone, Jason!  Can't begin to say how much time the README and all your 
posts here have helped.

As for you, Mark Perez, and anyone else who is new to this list,

There's an expression that goes along the lines of "don't piss in your 
own well."  My original comments to you were going to be far less 
subtle, but luckily my wife helps keep me centered.  I have no idea how 
Jason does it, but he's a rock considering the amount of time he puts 
into this and the kinds of comments/posts/private emails he's constantly 
being barraged with (like yours).  He's helped me with PostgreSQL, and 
without even realizing it, he's now helped me immensely in other 
projects altogether.

[By the way, Jason, your little tip on using gcc -shared vs. the older 
dlltool helped me clean up the code in the Jabberd 1.4.x project so that 
the Cygwin compiles are now on average 30-50% smaller!  Unreal.  So 
simple, but without your comment I'd likely never have known.  And now 
it looks like the open-source Jabber server will build under Cygwin just 
about as cleanly/simply as it does under Linux/etc.  You even have me 
thinking about building a proper Cygwin package for Jabberd.  Thanks!]

Back to you, Mark.  You may just lack serious communication skills.  You 
may have meant well but just didn't think when you wrote.  I'd like to 
give you the benefit of the doubt (though my initial reaction was far 
less positive).  But please do the rest of us a favor and don't piss in 
our well, ok?  I for one would hate to see Jason get disheartened in any 
way just because you lacked the common sense and basic decency to write 
in a polite fashion.

I've seen too many people who volunteered their time/energy/money for 
some project, only to walk away when they'd gotten frustrated by emails 
that show a complete lack of respect.  Too many good projects have died 
because of such things.  You can find examples of this all over the 
open-source community.  It takes a special breed to keep doing this.

I realize you're new to PostgreSQL under Cygwin and so are quite likely 
unfamiliar with the cultural history around here.  But Jason is, quite 
frankly, "the man."  He's made access to PostgreSQL for Windows users 
far easier than it ever was before.  And noting the Unix origins of 
PostgreSQL and how difficult it can be to port such apps to Windows, 
it's quite an accomplishment.  I've just gotten a taste of it, and the 
project I was playing with is chicken feed compared to PostgreSQL.

Jason doesn't have to do any of the things he does here.  But I can't 
imagine where PostgreSQL would be on the Windows platform without him.