Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 00:11:30 +0000 From: David Murphy <drjolt@redbrick.dcu.ie> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: make world failed Message-ID: <20000404001130.A83840@enigma.redbrick.dcu.ie> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004031348070.2849-100000@dt051n0b.san.rr.com>; from Doug@gorean.org on Mon, Apr 03, 2000 at 01:57:52PM -0700 References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10004031529120.36725-100000@home.offwhite.net> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004031348070.2849-100000@dt051n0b.san.rr.com>
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Quoting <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004031348070.2849-100000@dt051n0b.san.rr.com> by Doug Barton <Doug@gorean.org>: > As I said, the documentation project can always use fresh > blood. I suggest you subscribe to doc@freebsd.org so you can get an > idea of what's happening currently. Or, you can just use this whole > pointless exercise to promote your web site. Either is fine with me, > as long as you spend more time making constructive contributions > instead of sending pointless e-mails to the list. I've been on the receiving end of a previous iteration of this flamewar, and I don't personally see that your position is any more constructive. At the end of the day, if someone wants to write documentation, they will. If they don't, they won't. In your model, the person who needs documentation is assigned the task of writing documentation. There seem to be two widely held opinions on this list, and I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that they are held by the majority of FreeBSD developers: 1) The responsibility for locating available documentation rests with the user. 2) If the user finds the available documentation insufficient, the responsibility for creating sufficient documentation rests with the user. It seems to me that the difference between users and developers is that developers generally find the above opinions reasonable, users generally do not. There are, broadly speaking, two classes of users of any software system: those who use the system, find problems with the system, and fix those problems; and those who use the system, find problems with the system, and report those problems. I think of the former group of people as "developers", and I call the latter group of people "users". The bottom line seems to be that, while developers are greatly desired, users are tolerated, to the extent that they don't get in the way of development. This makes FreeBSD an excellent choice of system for developers. It makes it a poor choice of system for users. This, in and of itself, is no problem if you are interested in creating and using a system by developers, for developers. Good for you, and much success. Just don't promote it to users. -- When asked if it is true that he uses his wheelchair as a weapon he will reply: "That's a malicious rumour. I'll run over anyone who repeats it." Stephen Hawking - [http://www.smh.com.au/news/0001/07/features/features1.html] David Murphy - For PGP public key, send mail with Subject: send-pgp-key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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