This is the mail archive of the cygwin@cygwin.com mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

Re: Moving cygwin discussions to Usenet? (e.g., alt.os.cygwin)


On Tue, Oct 01, 2002 at 10:37:35AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>  a mail server [No Reverse DNS] with no reverse DNS entry.
> X-RBL-Warning: This E-mail was routed in a poor manner consistent with spam [20000103].
> X-Note: This E-mail was scanned by Declude JunkMail (www.declude.com) for spam.
> X-Spam-Tests-Failed: [Unknown Var]
> X-RCPT-TO: <root@it-portugal.com>
> X-UIDL: 328756968
> Status: O
> Content-Length: 2935
> Lines: 70
> 
> On Tue, Oct 01, 2002 at 09:30:53AM +0100, raphael wrote:
> >On Mon, Sep 30, 2002 at 07:22:35PM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >>However, this really side steps the issue.  Five hundred "How do I get
> >>to the previous command in bash?" questions are not going to lead to
> >>new insight about cygwin.
> >
> >Yes they will.  These questions are asked by starting users who are new
> >to posix but might very well be window guru's.  Currently they are
> >being putt off in a very rude way by a few people, thus cutting into
> >Cygwins future potential.
> 
> Please provide the URL of such a reply.  Stating that a thing is so
> without proof is not useful.

Glad you ask. Examine thread "Crontab problems" 
MID <20020911204824.7327.qmail@web21008.mail.yahoo.com>
it shows my point.

> I see many people patiently answering "newbie" questions here.  Surely
> everyone has seen answers from (to name a few) Randle Schulz, Larry
> Hall, Igor Pechtchanski, and Robert Collins.

Sure, there are, and in just this tread f.i. Igor was of great help.
But had I not had enough net experience gathered over the years
the above first message that was even double posted to myself and
the list, might have put me off very easily. But I refuse to get
caught in the battle of extremists on both sides :-) Thats why
I like cygwin. I waited long for it. I wont let it go. Neither
will I at the moment step over to *nix. It just won't do the job.
 
> I won't deny that occasionally people (like me, maybe) come across as
> being brusque but I really don't think that people aren't being helped
> here.  Even if it was the case, I don't see how a newsgroup would
> magically get people helped.  All that it would take would be one
> brusque person and there you go.

No thats not what I'm experiencing on other lists. The problem here
is very clearly the knowledge niveau's and the trafic. The latter
has been brought to your attention more then once. If people start
excusing for putting up a question then this tells us that they are
intimidated. Why would that be.

> >I refuse to believe that it is hystorical that so many developers come
> >from a *.nix background and so few if any from the windows side.
> 
> It doesn't matter where people come from.  Theoretically everyone can
> be taught where and how to find answers.

Sure and they theoretically would :-)

> >Eventually IMHO the current behaviour will slow down intergration of
> >cygwin into windows.
> 
> I don't see how.  The project seems to grow more popular every day.
> Letting people ask any old question without attempting to rein in the
> questions to something manageable doesn't seem like a good way to ensure
> project growth.  It seems more like an invitation to chaos to me.

Yes it grows, can you tell me why. The growth I see is the number of
packages succesfully ported. But how about the advance of intergration?
Is cygwin becomming a Windows hosted *nix or is it advancing into more
and melting with Windows into a Hybrid. The primary seems pretty useless.

> 
> >>That's what we're talking about.  A question like (to use a recent
> >>example) "Why doesn't vim notice when I resize a console window under
> >>cygwin?" will lead to cygwin insights.  I'd rather see those kind of
> >>questions asked in the official forum and point the bash people to the
> >>appropriate documentation.
> >
> >Isn't that what the development list is actually for?
> 
> No.  It isn't.  Why would anyone be arguing with me about this?  I don't
> get it.  I wrote most of the words on project page.  Do you think I'm
> going to slap my forehead and say "Aha!  The developers list!  I forgot
> all about that!"

Have no illusions, with the growing popularity of cygwin this issue will
hit you on the same forehead untill you comprehend that there is a new
group of users that need a home. Btw: I'm aware what the dev list is for.

> >What is the development list for, I see most development done here.
> 
> Check out http://cygwin.com/list.html for a description of what the
> mailing lists are for.  It sounds like all of the proponents of this
> newsgroup should

I'm sure they will and get even more incentive to do what they are starting
out to do. A pitty really that it has to go this way. I for one don't
believe in a usenet group unless moderated and a newbee list would
really be a great solution.
-- 
Death is Nature's way of recycling human beings.

Attachment: msg00038/pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]