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Re: Mysterious gdb behavior.


On 29 Jul 2002 at 5:36, Nicholas Wourms wrote:

> > FYA, I did read the FAQ. However:
> 
> From your somewhat clueless and longwinded responses, one is likely
> to deduce that you haven't.  Either that or your read the FAQ and
> didn't understand it.

It sounds like you mean "you read the FAQ and didn't memorize it". In 
that case, you're right. Is there something wrong with that?

> > * Nothing about gdb's behavior suggested to me that the directory
> >   name was an issue. Therefore it would not occur to me to consider
> >   that part of the FAQ relevant.
> 
> You really need to take a course in problem-solving.  Finding out
> what's causing the problem isn't always going to be black-and-white. 

No, it's not. Sometimes you have insufficient information to diagnose 
the problem and then you have to ask the experts. And hope the 
experts aren't all condescending arrogant twits.

> You must eliminate the usual suspects before you resort to assuming
> the bug lies in the software.  That means checking out the relevant
> FAQ for the platform/software you are using and asking yourself "does
> this condition exist?"

Does which condition exist? Every time I have a problem you expect me 
to open up the FAQ and read it cover to cover for every single 
possibility? Sorry, no way. I might scan it for a relevant error 
message or whatever and do mailing list archive searches for the 
same. That's it.

In this case, I just got a cryptic "unable to spawn process, error 
193" or such. This didn't prove to be a fruitful search, in the FAQ 
(the copy I downloaded when I got cygwin, months ago) or elsewhere.

If you won't meet a user who has a problem halfway, and instead 
expect the users to solve problems entirely by themselves, then why 
are you participating in this mailing list responding to questions? I 
question your motives.

> This is called "research" in problem solving.  You now have
> ascertained where the problem lies, but your hasty conclusion that
> the directory path is set in stone is foolish.  You should have
> searched the mailing list archives [which if you looked at the bottom
> of the message, it tells you where they are assuming you are
> subscribed to this list (hint: http://cygwin.com/lists.html] to see
> how this problem was approached and solved in the past.

[snip]

> 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/

I don't see that URL in here.

> I know the answer is there as I had to do so myself.

Why would it occur to me to search the mailing lists a second time 
for *the same problem*? I searched once for the error message. The 
search was fruitless. Therefore I switched to plan B: ask the mailing 
list and discuss the issue until someone tells me how to fix it. 
Instead, it seems I'm expected (by you at least) to go back to square 
1 and search the list archives a second time? It seems your idea of 
the ideal helping a newbie session is:

Newbie gets error message.
Newbie searches mailing list archives. Solved or:
Newbie posts error message on list.
Helpful person posts a word and says "Search for it."
Newbie searches mailing list archvies. Solved or:
Newbie posts another error message, or that the search results 
weren't specific enough.
Helpful person posts another word and says "Search for it."...

That would rapidly get tedious indeed. It's fortunate indeed that not 
everyone here believes as you do about this.

> The name of my home directory directly coinsides with the logon name
> I used the very first time I booted into windows.  Therefore, what I
> should do is click logout of windows and sign-in with no spaces in my
> name.  The rest I'll leave up to you...

You suggest changing my user name in *Windows* also? Wonderful. Have 
you any idea how nontrivial that is? It also means my Windows home 
directory in Documents and Settings has to be renamed. And then the 
whole hard drive and registry have to be scanned and a search and 
replace done, so as to fix things like mru lists and all kinds of 
configuration files for all kinds of different software, from my 
mailer and newsreader to my programmer's editor. It's probably easier 
to live without gdb, or to not use my Cygwin home directory at all. 
:P

> *Sigh* I think you are missing the point, Cygwin is an emulation
> layer, not a full-fledged operating system.

Did I claim otherwise?


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