[OT] Re: [PATCH]: Still path.cc

Brian Ford ford@vss.fsi.com
Wed Sep 22 23:20:00 GMT 2004


On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, Christopher Faylor wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 22, 2004 at 11:07:09AM -0500, Brian Ford wrote:
> >You can't win here.  If you're a developer like person, the answer to
> >bug reports is usually "fix it yourslef if it's important to you".  If
> >you don't report it, but say thank you when someone fixes it, you get
> >"shame on you for not reporting this serious bug".
>
> You apparently aren't paying very close attention.

Yes, I am.  I already understood all that you wrote below.

You snipped the winking smiley and accompanying statement that followed,
which was written upon realizing that the statements above might not be
taken the way I intended.

> > I'm not really as frustrated as I sound, though ;-).

It boils down to simply...

> If you provide a simple test case to the cygwin list, you are generally
> thanked for the simple test case and eventually someone will fix it.
>
> If you report a vague bug, you will either be ignored or there will be
> some attempt from cygwin mailing list regulars to purify the problem
> from, e.g., into "cygwin bash hangs when I do something.  Please help!"
> to "cygwin bash hangs when I type 'cd ..somewhere' using cygwin 1.5.11
> (cygcheck output included)"

I knew that, still only had a vague bug, and didn't have time to clarify
it.  I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself, so I don't bother with
sending in vague bug reports unless I feel the issue is critically in
need of a heads up.

> If you mention that you saw the same simple bug long ago and never
> reported it (and why you'd bother to do that is perplexing), then you
> will probably be matter-of-factly told that you should have reported
> it earlier.

Seeing Pierre's fix solidified this vague bug in my head, and I simply
wanted to thank him for fixing it.  Doesn't seem too perplexing to me.

> And, predictably the response to that will generally be "I didn't have
> enough time", "It wasn't my fault", or "It's your fault".

For me, it was firmly 1, not all three.

The only part I object to is being indirectly criticized for saying thank
you.

-- 
Brian Ford
Senior Realtime Software Engineer
VITAL - Visual Simulation Systems
FlightSafety International
the best safety device in any aircraft is a well-trained pilot...



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