[ace-users] Query: bug fixes from commercial support

[Johnny Willemsen]

Hi,

> > Do the bug fixes or enhancements from commercial support providers
> >flow back into the free version.
> 
> Yes, in general they do.

I can only speak for Remedy IT, but our company policy is that everything we
do first goes back to the repository before we deliver it to the customer.
For the repository we do have a large scoreboard that builds and tests
ACE/TAO/CIAO 24 hours a day (see http://remedy.nl). At the moment we get a
problem report in from a customer, we make a test program to reproduce it on
the version of the customer, then add this test to the repository, so that
we can see if the problem still exists on the head version, if it doesn't
exist anymore, we do a search what did change, backport the fix for the
customer and deliver it. When it fails on head, we do fix the problem first
on head, then the scoreboard will show whether the fix works on all
platforms and doesn't break any other functionality, then backport the fix
to the customer version, retest for their platform and then deliver it. This
does seem more work then fix the bug just only on the customer platform, but
in our experience the fact that we know for sure the fix works and doesn't
break other things is worth the additional time (which is mostly an hour or
so).

Regards,

Johnny Willemsen
Remedy IT
Postbus 101
2650 AC  Berkel en Rodenrijs
The Netherlands
www.theaceorb.nl / www.remedy.nl  

*** Integrated compile and test statistics see http://remedy.nl ***
*** Commercial service and support for ACE/TAO/CIAO             ***
*** See http://www.theaceorb.nl/en/support.html                 ***