On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 12:50:43PM -0800, Michael Squires wrote:
> 
> There are a number of reasons that a company might not want to build
> from source. If you can put a disciplined process in place (with
> source code control, clear version numbers, etc) then I think you
> can reduce the uncertainties associated with building your own.

By the way, despite my dismay at watching large companies re-invent
the problems one had with MSFT/IBM support in the dark days before
anyone could spell "cc" and "make", I think the comment about
disciplined processes is super important.  It is a foolish sysadmin
indeed who allows expedience to dictate performing compiles in the
production environment and so on.  And I say this as someone who,
against his better judgement, took those shortcuts on some occasions.

The plain fact is that you will be disciplined, whether you like it or
not.  The only question is whether you'll be disciplined in a planned
way, before deploying; whether you'll be disciplined later, in the
middle of the night, while trying to undo the effects of earlier poor
discipline; or whether you'll be disciplined by your bosses on Monday
morning, because everything went pear-shaped after a botched upgrade.
Your choice.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at crankycanuck.ca