Re: [Bug 118708] could not locate ISO DocBook entities

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, guenther wrote:

> "We" (as in GARNOME) do not focus on GNU/Linux only. It's a fact that
> the GAR build system historically highly depends on GNU tools. However,
> the GARNOME community and Paul in particular has put quite a lot of
> effort recently into supporting other systems, including Solaris and
> AIX. We want to spread GNOME, not GNU/Linux. I suggest you actually
> discuss with us, before accusing us of living in a GNU-only world.

This has been my impression of Garnome and most of the Gnome developers do
not intentionally write non portable code, although most do not have as
much time as they would like to test and fix such issues and there are
always a few who are cluessless. (Bonobo and gnome specific libraries have
proved to be a dead end and cause all kinds of portability issues and
these are mistakes Gnome developers are less and less likely to ever make
again).

> Regarding GNU tools and their usage: You *do* know what GNOME stands
> for, don't you? ;-)

Oh for the love of $DEITY I couldn't let this go by without making a
comment.  I hate that unfunny joke with a burning passion.  The backronym
is a stupid made up piece of crap and always has been.  Why do developers
think it is funny to make up meaninglish acronyms, jargon and gibberish
which only servers to alienate their audience?  Gnome still doesn't live
up to the supposed "Network Object Model" and people should be too
embarassed to bring it up while Bonobo is in dying and DBUS is only
beginning to provide some of what is needed.

Ask Richard Stallman what he thinks about the GNU credentials of Gnome if
you dare, the affiliation is certainly not as strong as he would like.

I only write Gnome or gnome. If Gnome is an acronym then it should be
written properly as G.N.O.M.E. or not at all.  Writing GNOME in all caps
is both awkward and half assed and looks like something a totally lame
newbie would do and the sooner this stupid practice dies out the better.

/endrant

> It's not appropriate to resort to ranting and flaming though, rather
> than giving proper feedback -- may it be in bugzilla or here.

Guenther is fantastically helpful and friendly and he and the other
Garnome developers do a lot of thankless work that ensures Gnome is far
better tested than it would otherwise be.

Thanks to all the Garnome developers.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan.