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Re: Latest Glibc from CVS has segmentation problems.
On Mar 7, 2004, at 1:26 PM, Ulrich Drepper wrote:
8. Cries like "then at least document what is needed" fall into the
same category. First, it is something which is not necessary to
get
glibc going for 95% of all people (those using a distribution).
Second, you have no right to decide how I spend my time. If you
want something done there are only two ways: do it yourself, or
pay somebody to do it. Documenting the exact requirements is
a futile job since it might change daily. The matrix of
architectures cross tools cross OS version is too large.
[...]
10. If you've done that and you feel like documenting it, write it up,
post it to some website, and send a reference to the list. You'll
see how much time it takes to keep this up-to-date and answering
all
questions. I regard my time as far too precious to do this and a
disservice to almost all users since every second I spent answering
emails about installation issues or writing detailed docs about how
to do it is time I cannot spend on fixing bugs, reviewing patches,
or develop improvements.
It seems to me that your attitude has significantly changed since
portions of INSTALL were written, like this one:
"???There?are?probably?bugs?in?the?GNU?C?library.??There?are?certainly
errors?and?omissions?in?this?manual.??If?you?report?them,?they?will?get
fixed.??If?you?don't,?no?one?will?ever?know?about?them?and?they?will
remain?unfixed?for?all?eternity,?if?not?longer."
It seems that such reports of errors and omissions in INSTALL are no
longer welcome. In fact, I almost wonder if the user community would be
better served by replacing the entire contents of INSTALL with "Don't",
possibly followed by "And if you absolutely must, copy what the
distribution makers do."
As Marcus Brinkmann said earlier, "Frustration usually happens because
of unfulfilled expectations." I wonder if the present contents of
INSTALL are creating these expectations. Maybe if they were adjusted,
you would find fewer distractions from your work.
Thanks,
Scott