Rewriting nsclient? (was NSClient 1.0.8.0 Installation Problem)

[Stanley Hopcroft]

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for your letter, your sincere and realistic
support of the Nagios project, the clear rationale you have given for
your work and comment on some of your words.


On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 10:25:42AM -0400, Tim Shouldice wrote:
> Roy:
> 
> In my professional job, I code about 90% of the time in Perl on Unix. When looking at the best tool to approach to develop this service for NT
>  I went through the following thoughts.
> 
> Coding on Windows is a horrible task, coding a service is even worse, given that how can I make it as painless as possible?
> 
> Perl would be nice, however requiring NT admins to install Perl on their boxes is sometimes hard, some NT admins believe WSH is all
> they'll ever need and think Perl is something they buy at a jewelry 
> store.

Yep. Same here. Not all Windows admins are dills but quite a few are
happy to only point-and-click. (Those here wouldn't even code in wsh.  
Excel macros if you are lucky).

> 
> C++ requires either Visual Studio or C++ builder. Hell will freeze over before I buy a product from MS.
>

Unfortunately, it is a fact of life for committed Open Source 
developers. 

Those wanting free Win binaries are not those who usually pay for the 
MS OS, or have any idea about the MS way of development.

It is not generally recognised that all the development tools that are 
taken for granted in a GNU installation are absent on the MS platform 
and have to be obtained. In many cases, this means paid for by the 
developer.

There are companies (MKS for example) that actually make money out of 
porting Unix tools to MS platforms. (I'd use Cygwin I think).
 
> Buy C++ builder and start from scratch or Delphi and build on what was already done.
> 
> Building on what is already done was easier and Pascal isn't a hard language to work in, if find it easier than C and C++.
>  Although this is the first time I've coded in Pascal in over a dozen 
> years.
>

To my way of thinking, you are the one doing the work, and you can code 
in whatever language you choose. 

If you chose Forth, Cobol or Lisp it wouldn't be a big deal to me.
 
> For non-commercial use (and I believe writing GPL code is non-commercial), Delphi only costs a hundred bucks, a pretty decent deal to me.
> 
> /Tim
>

Finally, you may want to consider adopting Tobi Oetikers approach and 
encouraging those who use your work to share the costs of developing 
under MS Win.

MS Visual Studio is not a cheap product. Those advocating its use should 
bear in mind that while the binary they use may be free to them, it may 
cost you (in Australia) considerably.

The RRD way is for those who benefit from the work to think about 
buying Tobi a CD off his Amazon CD/DVD wish list.

I think you are making a great effort to enhance the usability and 
prestige of Nagios, and should I need nsclient, I will certainly 
contribute to your costs.

Since my coding skills are minimal or nonexistent, I am happy to 
contribute  cash to superior Open Source Software such as Perl, Ntop 
and Nagios.

I love this software enough to give something for it; to be conscious 
all the time of the blood sweat and tears that accompanies such massive 
projects; and to be very very grateful that they are giving me not only 
something that makes things easier for me, but that in a small way I 
enjoy also.


Thank you,

Yours sincerely. 

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanley Hopcroft
------------------------------------------------------------------------

'...No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee...'

from Meditation 17, J Donne.


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