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.