[Interest] Chasing a standard

[Tomasz Siekierda]

On Mon, 5 Nov 2018 at 13:35, Roland Hughes <roland at logikalsolutions.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 11/4/18 3:52 PM, Lars Knoll wrote:
> >> On 4 Nov 2018, at 22:13, Roland Hughes <roland at logikalsolutions.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> We already lose droves of Qt developers every year when Qt keeps moving on but medical devices, border security systems like cargo x-ray, train control systems, etc. have to fork their own version of Qt because Qt keeps moving on without a 5-8 year LTS.
> > Yes, the Open source and standard commercial versions come with a maximum of 3 years for LTS releases. But you can get longer support for Qt versions from The Qt Company though.
>
> Three years isn't a drop of water in Lake Michigan. A completely new
> surgical robot will take a minimum of 4 years design and prototyping
> followed by 1-3 years of development (which must also include the
> _entire_ manufacturing process for certification.) Then it goes through
> clinical trials which can last upwards of 7 years. Once released to the
> field it will be in maintenance/minor enhancement mode for 10 years or
> more. This entire time the tool set must be locked down.

Since the tool is locked down, then it does not matter if Qt has moved
on or not, right? You're not allowed to upgrade/ change it anyway, you
have to stick to what you deployed. So there is no reason to complain
about lack of support here. That's the reality of such big and long
term projects. NASA also still keeps operational their computers from
1970 to handle Voyager missions. It does not mean that the
manufacturers of these PC are somehow obligated to support them
anymore.

> Just this year a drug manufacturer in California fielded a job opening
> looking for a PDP-11 systems manager familiar with hardware maintenance.
> Some of you may recall that a PDP-11 was the machine C and UNIX were
> developed on in the 1970s. It was _the_ midrange computer of its day but
> hasn't been manufactured since the late 1980s.

And you bring this up because PDP-11 is still supported by its
(non-existing by since 20 years) manufacturer just like Qt should?