Re: PR/47769 CVS commit: pkgsrc/textproc/ispell-ro

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 11:10:05AM +0000, rodent%NetBSD.org@localhost wrote:
> The following reply was made to PR pkg/47769; it has been noted by GNATS.
> 
> From: rodent%NetBSD.org@localhost
> To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
> Cc: 
> Subject: Re: PR/47769 CVS commit: pkgsrc/textproc/ispell-ro
> Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:08:55 -0400
> 
>  On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 06:05:05AM +0000, Robert Elz wrote:
>  >  
>  >    |  I would really prefer it if, instead of requiring this, prescribing
>  >    |  that, and proscribing something else, judgement was used as to the
>  >    |  best way of doing things.
>  >  
>  >  Agreed 100%.
>  
>  Having solid documentation is giving developers the tools to make that
>  judgement. Without that, we have unwritten guidelines and that leads to
>  conversations like these. We don't really lose anything from synthesizing the
>  knowledge transfers in these discussions into our pkgsrc guide.
>  
>  However, if you enjoy spending your time educating noobs and writing
>  essentially the same emails over and over again, then feel free to not amend
>  the documentation with the results of this conversation. That would seem more
>  stressful to me, but probably 95% of people have more patience than I do.
>  YMMV.

I do not think you are impatient; I do think you're only seeing part
of the picture here, though.

NetBSD and pkgsrc have a mentor system, which is designed to help new
developers get up to speed.  You are encouraged to talk to your
mentors before making changes, so that they can help you do things.

Relying solely on documents is not going to help anyone, since
documents can be out of date, or not cover cases, or be wrong, or open
to misinterpretation, or incomplete, or not mention parts that are
needed to gain context, or lose something in translation.

Please get to know your mentors, include and involve them in discussions,
and ask for their advice.

Thanks,
Alistair