RE: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Cygwin/XFree86 DocBook-based FAQ Draft 2

["Harold Hunt" <huntharo at msu dot edu>]

Suhaib,

> you replied, "xwin is not
> video card dependent, GOT IT BECAUASE IT IS IMPORTANT"

Just so I don't sound like a right bloody bastard, I'd like to quote
verbatim what I said, "Cygwin/XFree86 has no video card dependencies;
understand that, it's important."

I said that because Cygwin/XFree86 used to be video card dependent in that
some video card drivers did not support overlays, and there were some
problem flags being passed to some DirectDraw functions that made it seem as
if Cygwin/XFree86 was video card dependent, when it in fact wasn't.  I don't
think my tone was overly strong, but I did wan't to nip in the bud any ideas
that the new Cygwin/XFree86 is video card and/or DirectDraw version
dependent.  To clarify: the current server will fall back on DirectDraw if
DirectDraw4 is not installed, then it will fall back on GDI if DirectDraw is
not installed or is not operational.  Furthermore, I saw exactly what the
user's problem was, so I didn't want anyone to get the idea that we should
be asking user's what their video card is as part of the troubleshooting
process (as this would just be a wild goose chase).  Sorry if it came off as
rude; I was merely trying to be stern :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > > Are you going to provide two different FAQ on our Cygwin/XFree86 URL?
> Huh?  What is accusative here?  I am asking a question.

Well, to understand why I took offense at this we'll have to bring in the
definition of "rhetorical question", from

http://www.clearcf.uvic.ca/writersguide/Pages/RhetRhetQuestion.html,

"A rhetorical question implies that the answer is obvious--the kind of
question that does not need actually to be answered. It is used for
rhetorically persuading someone of a truth without argument, or to give
emphasis to a supposed truth by stating its opposite ironically."

The form of your question implied that I was going to post my draft FAQ to
the Cygwin/XFree86 site soon and that this would be bad thing.
Unfortunately, we can only convey our intentions through textual expression;
when I read that grammatical form, I took it as an attack.

A more tactful way to voicing your concerns could have been something like
this, "Motif questions, as well as some others are missing... you are going
to add these before the FAQ draft becomes the FAQ final, right?"  And to
that I could have only one reply, "Yes, of course, I'm not quite done yet."

Harold