Subject: Re: ELF integration on a.out platforms
To: None <dolecek@ics.muni.cz>
From: John Kohl <jtk@kolvir.arlington.ma.us>
List: current-users
Date: 02/09/1999 20:41:34
>>>>> "JD" == Jaromir Dolecek <dolecek@ics.muni.cz> writes:

JD> What does "flag day" mean, anyway ? My english is not good enough to know :)
JD> Seems like it  could be "problem of switch day".

Good question.  The jargon file says (at
http://www.klammeraffe.org/jargon/flag_day.html):

flag day

n. A software change that is neither forward- nor backward-compatible,
and which is costly to make and costly to reverse. "Can we install that
without causing a flag day for all users?" This term has nothing to do
with the use of the word flag to mean a variable that has two values. It
came into use when a massive change was made to the Multics timesharing
system to convert from the old ASCII code to the new one; this was
scheduled for Flag Day (a U.S. holiday), June 14, 1966. See also
backward combatability.

-- 
==John Kohl <jtk@kolvir.arlington.ma.us>, <john_kohl@alum.mit.edu>
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Home page: <http://people.ne.mediaone.net/jtk/>
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