8 bit os_f handles

[Jonathan Coxhead]

   David wrote,

 | You relinquished control of OSLib at version 5.3 when you GPL'd it.
 | This means that its future developments are in the hands of its 
users,
 | coordinated by the current maintainers, Tony and Tom. Trying to 
insist
 | that things are done in a particular way and stifling free debate
 | (such as when I asked for other peoples opinions on the matter) can
 | only undermine confidence in the library.

   I can't insist that anything is done in any particular way. I have 
no veto power over any changes that are made. I have no interest in 
stifling free debate, as you can see by the fact that I am, at this 
very moment, participating in, um, free debate. No doubt, if anyone 
else has a strong opinion on the matter, they will chip in.

   All I can do is attempt to make my point with sufficiently 
convincing arguments that even those who think that changing an 
interface (or "breaking a promise", if you want to think of it that 
way) is o k, come around to accepting that it might not be such a bad 
thing after all if the interface is extended rather than changed.

   We've already heard from Tony, and it seems all is well in 
stability-land. This is undoubtedly good news for the man in the 
street, as any politician would say.

 | I have already had to fork the library to solve the bug in the 
short
 | term, I now leave it the maintainers to seek other opinions and 
choose
 | between the alternatives outlines in my previous post, (or any 
others
 | that may be suggested), to determine what solutions are offered to
 | other library users.

   Well, that's very good of you, but I expect that's what they will 
do anyway.

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