VHDL, was Re: gEDA-dev: Hierarchical buses

[Peter Clifton]

On Wed, 2007-03-21 at 11:51 -0500, John Griessen wrote:
> Peter Clifton wrote:
>   $255-260 each
> >>    from IEEE.  Has anybody purchased a copy of the VHDL spec?
> > 
> > This is pretty awful. VHDL might be fantastic (I'm not experienced
> > enough to know), but what use is a "standard" which is not freely
> > available.
> The  FPGA developers are  using the ___ out of it.  You'll find it available in your engineering library...
> 
> John G

I know.. I was just stirring trouble I guess.

I'm very strongly of the opinion that for something to be "standard", it
should be downloadable free of charge, or should be physically available
at some minimal cost for distribution and printing.

I'm not keen on the massive proliferation of "standards" which seem
geared only towards keeping the various standards bodies in work, and as
revenue streams for them.

I recently had to look up some British (now European) standards for
various things, and found it a huge mess of related documents (all which
you have to pay for), and all virtually identical, or later issued
versions with different standard numbers on them.

It is fortunate that I could view them in my local library, however I
hate to think what they are paying for their subscription to that
service.

Regards,

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)