Re: soapbox - was: press for cygwin

["J. J. Farrell" <jjf at bcs dot org dot uk>]

From: Tim Baggett <tim@acca.nmsu.edu>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:50:25 -0600 (MDT)
>
> Even better, was the fact that your answers were
> polite rather than demeaning, which is typical from some
> arrogant RedHat/Cygwin folks who often prefer to spend more time showing
> an attitude than actually being helpful.

I was interested to hear this about the RedHat folks. Could you
let us have more precise details? For example - in August, how
many hours did Chris and Corinna spend showing an attitude and
how many hours did they spend working on Cygwin? Or do you not
consider doing things like improving the setup mechanism and
porting and enhancing OpenSSH to run on Cygwin as being helpful?

> To the core group as a whole, consider your documentation. Documentation
> is an essential part of project management, yet I see none of that
> activity being done here. Check out the following link and see how out
> dated the User's Guide is:
> 
> http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/installing-binaries.html
> 
> How is someone supposed to read through this document and know that the
> information they obtain is even partially accurate? I haven't seen an
> update to the User's Guide in well over a year. I am thankful to the
> volunteer who recently stepped up last month to make some changes to the
> FAQ.
> 
> No... Do not tell me I need to get involved and take on a documentation
> project. I would love to contribute to Cygwin, but I do not know nearly
> enough to take on such a task, nor am I part of this elite group who
> prefers not to answer beginning questions.

It's a shame that you can't do this yourself. It surprises me a
little that you know enough to see that a document is wrong, but
don't know enough to research the incorrect areas, ask questions
of the experts, and then correct the document. I've worked with
many technical authors over the years. None of them knew the
first thing about the projects when they started, and many had
very little technical knowledge at all. All were able to produce
competent user documentation from scratch after a few weeks of
gathering information, and some of their work was outstanding.
I think anyone with reasonable ability in written English, and
enough technical knowledge to use Cygwin, should be able to
update an existing document.

But don't be coy, man - name names! Who precisely is it that you
are demanding should do this work? Chris Faylor? Corinna Vinschen?
Chuck Hansen? Ernie Boyd? One of the many others? Do you have a
cost/benefit analysis to show why it is more important to update
this document than to do the Cygwin-related tasks that they are
currently working on? Or are you demanding that they should give
up more of their time to do it?  In that case, it's probably even
more important to show why it is better for them to do this work
instead of playing with their children, earning a living, going
skiing, or whatever.

> I'm just providing some food for thought.

On the contrary! You're providing a remarkable and entertaining
exposition of your thanklessness, rudeness, arrogance, ingratitude,
and expectation that other people should provide you with something
for nothing as and when you demand it. You're probably also slowing
down the Cygwin development rate - if I were a Cygwin developer,
I'd be wondering why I bother spending my spare time producing
software for people who come back with your sort of attitude, and
I'd probably decide there were far better things to do instead.


I believe the vast majority of Cygwin users are extremely grateful
for all the work that the developers put in on this project. Those
who whine about its deficiencies or complain about the attitudes
of major contributors form a very small minority, even if they are
heard from frequently. For what little they're worth, my thanks to
everyone who contributes to Cygwin.



--
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/