From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "J. J. Farrell" To: Subject: Re: soapbox - was: press for cygwin Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 02:27:00 -0000 Message-id: <000b01c13391$796f5b20$38810142@pavilion> References: <999371103.2145.ezmlm@sources.redhat.com> X-SW-Source: 2001-09/msg00024.html From: Tim Baggett Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:50:25 -0600 (MDT) > > Even better, was the fact that your answers were > polite rather than demeaning, which is typical from some > arrogant RedHat/Cygwin folks who often prefer to spend more time showing > an attitude than actually being helpful. I was interested to hear this about the RedHat folks. Could you let us have more precise details? For example - in August, how many hours did Chris and Corinna spend showing an attitude and how many hours did they spend working on Cygwin? Or do you not consider doing things like improving the setup mechanism and porting and enhancing OpenSSH to run on Cygwin as being helpful? > To the core group as a whole, consider your documentation. Documentation > is an essential part of project management, yet I see none of that > activity being done here. Check out the following link and see how out > dated the User's Guide is: > > http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/installing-binaries.html > > How is someone supposed to read through this document and know that the > information they obtain is even partially accurate? I haven't seen an > update to the User's Guide in well over a year. I am thankful to the > volunteer who recently stepped up last month to make some changes to the > FAQ. > > No... Do not tell me I need to get involved and take on a documentation > project. I would love to contribute to Cygwin, but I do not know nearly > enough to take on such a task, nor am I part of this elite group who > prefers not to answer beginning questions. It's a shame that you can't do this yourself. It surprises me a little that you know enough to see that a document is wrong, but don't know enough to research the incorrect areas, ask questions of the experts, and then correct the document. I've worked with many technical authors over the years. None of them knew the first thing about the projects when they started, and many had very little technical knowledge at all. All were able to produce competent user documentation from scratch after a few weeks of gathering information, and some of their work was outstanding. I think anyone with reasonable ability in written English, and enough technical knowledge to use Cygwin, should be able to update an existing document. But don't be coy, man - name names! Who precisely is it that you are demanding should do this work? Chris Faylor? Corinna Vinschen? Chuck Hansen? Ernie Boyd? One of the many others? Do you have a cost/benefit analysis to show why it is more important to update this document than to do the Cygwin-related tasks that they are currently working on? Or are you demanding that they should give up more of their time to do it? In that case, it's probably even more important to show why it is better for them to do this work instead of playing with their children, earning a living, going skiing, or whatever. > I'm just providing some food for thought. On the contrary! You're providing a remarkable and entertaining exposition of your thanklessness, rudeness, arrogance, ingratitude, and expectation that other people should provide you with something for nothing as and when you demand it. You're probably also slowing down the Cygwin development rate - if I were a Cygwin developer, I'd be wondering why I bother spending my spare time producing software for people who come back with your sort of attitude, and I'd probably decide there were far better things to do instead. I believe the vast majority of Cygwin users are extremely grateful for all the work that the developers put in on this project. Those who whine about its deficiencies or complain about the attitudes of major contributors form a very small minority, even if they are heard from frequently. For what little they're worth, my thanks to everyone who contributes to Cygwin. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/