Re: inadequate/inconsisten 'help pkg' message; problems with downloading

[Sergei Steshenko]

--- On Sat, 8/6/11, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:

> From: John W. Eaton <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: inadequate/inconsisten 'help pkg' message; problems with 
> downloading
> To: "Sergei Steshenko" <address@hidden>
> Cc: "Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso" <address@hidden>, address@hidden
> Date: Saturday, August 6, 2011, 11:45 AM
> On  6-Aug-2011, Jordi Gutiérrez
> Hermoso wrote:
> 
> | 2011/8/6 Sergei Steshenko <address@hidden>:
> | 
> | > If/when I'm done, I'll post the _whole_ 'pkg.m' - it
> easier for humans
> | > to comprehend files opposed to file deltas, and a
> patch.
> | >
> | 
> | I don't know about other humans, but as for myself and
> probably other
> | Octave developers, reading diffs is quite easy and
> natural. I can also
> | easily import them into Emacs and get various diff
> visualisations from
> | it. I can generate my own diff if you prefer to post all
> of your
> | changes, but they're a little complicated to extract from
> your emails.
> 
> We want diffs because we will almost never simply replace
> an existing
> function or file with a completely new version because if
> we do that,
> then we could lose changes that have been made to our
> development
> sources that are not present in the version you started
> with.  Context
> diffs can usually be applied even if our version has some
> other
> changes.  And if a diff fails to apply, then we know
> that there are
> overlapping changes that we need to carefully
> examine.  So if you send
> us a completely new file, we'll just ask you to produce a
> set of
> context diffs relative to the version you started
> with.  If you are
> incapable of doing that, then we'll probably ask you to
> tell us the
> version you started with, or send us the original file that
> you
> started with before you made changes so we can generate our
> own diffs
> to examine.
> 
> jwe
> 
> 

"We want ...".

And _I_ want developers who do _not_ release SW full of warnings which
more often than not indicate _bugs_.

As my former colleague used to say: "It causes no harm to health to want.
For example, I do not mind my wife wanting a mink winter coat" - meaning
he can't afford it anyway.

...

I didn't mean you guys to apply the changes, I didn't mean you guys to
believe I comply by your rules.

I just published results of my research and my conclusions, as well as
_part_ of the changes I've made.

You guys do with my pieces of code whatever you want - you can ignore
them, you can review them, you can improve them, you can use them.

As I said _I_ _want_ to continue with debugging _your_ code. And while
doing this I do _not_ want to be interrupted by running 'diff' the way
you guys like it. I have _my_ priorities.

I do not understand all this pressuring me to deliver you file difference
- as I wrote in my Email, I am going to release 'pkg.m' and a diff.

Regards,
  Sergei.

P.S. I have just finished investigating package uninstall failure - going
to publish the results.