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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Please excuse the interruption. I never thought I would comment here, as I am a novice, but as a heavy user of open sim and a devotee of the project, I did read one email I wanted to comment on. If I am mistaken, please excuse as I am still learning, but Charles said: "I would suggest the key is not to break existing behavior since there are over a thousand OpenSim sims in existence on several grids and standalone arrays."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">My "two cents" is that you should never be too concerned with backward compatibility. However, I would recommend, if you are going to break it, you try to do it as infrequently as possible. As a user and reader of everything programming these days, I have found interesting articles regarding Microsoft's decision to always try to achieve backwards compatibility and what a mess of things that has made (I can attest to some of that in Vista) and contrast that with Apple's decision to (I believe with OSX) start fresh. Of course, in Apple's instance, everyone had to rebuy software, but not a whole lot of people complained as the benefits of not necessarily sticking with the past were evident. Compare that to Microsoft's code, which has so many millions of lines in it so someone can run Office 2000, for example. As someone who would have to change dozens of sims if you did change something to effect compatibility, I would have no problem with that, thinking of course long-term. Open Sim has been around a comparatively short time when considering its future, and any changes to make it right for the long-term should be made regardless of consequence. Finally, anyone using Open Sim really can't complain as it is clear it is in the development stage and things like this should be expected to happen.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Anyway, I just wanted to toss that out there. Thanks again for everything you all do. It's amazing!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Drew</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Drew Hart, Technical Support Coordinator, Secretarial Services</FONT>
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