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

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 16:12 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> 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

Heh. :)  Well, GNOME happens to be the "official" notation, and I'm just
used to write it that way. If you prefer Gnome, that's fine.

I'm not sure what actually came first, gnome as in dwarf or imp, or the
acronym. I don't really care, case I personally love the imp-ish
picture... ;)

Anyway, what I was about with that remark is not the entire acronym. It
was the "G" only, that was important and a valid point in the previous
discussion. http://www.gnome.org/about/ pretty much summarizes it:

  GNOME is Free Software and part of the GNU project [...]

Should one really wonder, if parts of the GNU project depend on GNU
software in the first place?


Again, we are happy to support non GNU tools, if feasible.


> > 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, Alan. :-)


> Thanks to all the Garnome developers.

...guenther


-- 
char *t="\10pse\0r\0dtu\0  ghno\x4e\xc8\x79\xf4\xab\x51\x8a\x10\xf4\xf4\xc4";
main(){ char h,m=h=*t++,*x=t+2*h,c,i,l=*x,s=0; for (i=0;i<l;i++){ i%8? c<<=1:
(c=*++x); c&128 && (s+=h); if (!(h>>=1)||!t[s+h]){ putchar(t[s]);h=m;s=0; }}}