Date: 22 Apr 2002 22:08:34 -0700 From: Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@artlogix.com> To: Mark Filipak <filipak@earthlink.net> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Mark asks: Can anyone send me mcopy? Message-ID: <87g01nc88d.fsf@ralf.artlogix.com> In-Reply-To: <3CC4DC14.1E504FA5@earthlink.net> References: <3CC19E08.8CA859B0@earthlink.net> <20020422075640.GU27975@roman.mobil.cz> <3CC3CC10.2F50EB0D@earthlink.net> <87r8l7e0o6.fsf@ralf.artlogix.com> <3CC4DC14.1E504FA5@earthlink.net>
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Mark Filipak <filipak@earthlink.net> writes: | But when a fellow listee makes a simple request, why not simply do it? Because (a) nobody knew whether it would work on your system, (b) it wasn't exactly a simple request, though you may not realize that yet, (c) mcopy isn't even a program, it's a link to mtools, (d) you already had the tools required to pull it off without mcopy, (e) nobody liked the thought of you being deluged with 20 copies of four different versions of mtools at 160 MiB apiece, plus directions on how to set up the symbolic links necessary to get mcopy to work on your system. | There's such a matter as being too helpful, to the extent that one reads | "stupid, lazy newbie" into a simple request. Whoa, Mark. I never read "stupid" or "lazy" in any of the responses. I have seen an occasional "RTFM" around, but not in any conversation involving you. Yet, anyway. ;) | Suppose I'd asked for a technical article... say, about XML? Would you | assume that I couldn't find it because I hadn't tried to find it or | because I was simply lazy? Of course not. If you had it, you'd send me a | copy. Actually, someone would probably send you a *link* to a copy, rather than the copy itself. And we could have sent you a link to the mtools source code (http://mtools.linux.lu/mtools-3.9.8.tar.gz) easily enough. But IMHO, it was better to send you instructions on how to accomplish what you wanted to do with the tools you already had available to you without needing to install anything. Believe me, you're going to appreciate that more the first time you accidentally delete something like /bin/ls. :) Sometimes, what may seem like the most evident answer at the moment may not be the best one under the circumstances. There's an informal mandate on this list to *try* to give the best answers possible, not just act like a typical phone-support goob. :) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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