!!!!!!!!! PORTABLE XSHOSTAKOVICH++ 98 1.7 !!!!!!!!!
===================================================

MAKING PORTABLE XSHOSTAKOVICH++ 98
----------------------------------
   You need an ANSI C++ compiler, such as g++.

   Just type `./configure', then `make'. `make install' will build and
install xshostakovich. `./configure' accepts the usual options. See
`INSTALL' for more details.

XSHOSTAKOVICH: THE EARLY DAYS
-----------------------------
   In spring 1993 I took 6.170 -- Computer System Engineering -- at MIT as
a sophomore. Barbara Liskov was the lecturer and I loved it. I don't really
know why: she wasn't an especially dynamic lecturer, and the information
was all in the book (Abstraction and Specification in Program Design); but
watching her wander around in front of the boards in 4-270 scrawling CLU
code and talking quietly about abstraction functions made me deeply happy.

   Part of it was the language, CLU, which was used to teach 6.170 until
two years ago even though no one else in the universe used it. I still miss
that language. It was influential and, more importantly, charming!!

   So I asked Dorothy Curtis, a UROP supervisor in Barbara's group, to work
there over the summer. She said yes. I worked there half-time that summer
and full time the following summer. Dorothy was a great supervisor, but I
was too bratty for that lab culture. I think all the other students wanted
me to die. Every day Barbara would walk to the water cooler right outside
my office and get a drink of water. I'd look over, and sometimes we'd
smile. We met again when I came in as a grad student; she said "You worked
in my group, didn't you?" I said "yes." She said "For how long?" I said
"About two summers." She said "Well why didn't you ever TALK to me?!" There
was really no answer to that.

   The first summer one of my jobs was to write a CLU interface to the X
library. Of course, any project like that requires a test program.

PORTABLE XSHOSTAKOVICH++ 98: REVITALIZED FOR THE WIRED UTOPIA TO COME
---------------------------------------------------------------------
   Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 brings the xshostakovich heritage into a new
era! Painstakingly updated by trained craftsmen for the needs of today's
consumers, we still include the original CLU source for historical
interest, and to demonstrate how far language design has regressed!!

   Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 is:

   * PORTABLE! No more wrestling with PCLU, conservative garbage collectors,
     and all that nonsense! Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 has been
     reengineered in C++, the language everyone on the block is talking
     about! AND it has a ./configure script!!

   * XSHOSTAKOVICH! Not one piece of warty behavior has changed for this
     modern version!!**

   * PLUS PLUS!! And we don't only mean C++! Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 has
     additional features galore!! Command line options!! `--infinity'!!
     Geometry!! YOU asked for it and YOU got it!!

   * 98!! (That's the year.)

**This is not true.

COPYRIGHT/LICENSE
-----------------
   Everyone's talking about the Open Source(tm) movement, but no one can
agree on exactly what it is. Do you listen to the nerdy guy with a
mustache, or the nerdy guy with long hair and a beard, or the nerdy guy
with the funny accent and a last name like some Norse god? This confusion
is bad for your customers and bad for YOU!

   Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 cuts through the clutter and introduces
what's sure to become the Open Source Standard: The Open Profanity License.
It's short, it's sweet, and it's easy to understand -- even for corporate
bozos, a.k.a. your boss (but certainly not you)! Catch the wave of the
future! Make Portable Xshostakovich++ 98 your first piece of Open
Source(tm) software today!! Thanks to an agreement with the world's animal
shelter network, you'll even receive a free cute puppy!!***

		** The Open Profanity License, Version 1 **

   All source code is Copyright (C) 1993-8 MY ASS. Any FUCKING IDIOT can do
anything to this FUCKING code they want, as long as they're a DUMBSHIT,
like YOU. You SUCK.

***You must collect the free cute puppy yourself.

XSHOSTAKOVICH HOME PAGE
-----------------------
   For latest distributions, bug reports, and other stuff, see the
Xshostakovich home page at

	http://www.lcdf.org/xshostakovich/

   Eddie Kohler
   eddietwo@lcs.mit.edu
