Re: building from CVS... some thoughts

["Michael Sterrett -Mr. Bones.-" <msterret coat com>]

On 31 Oct 1998, Michael Harnois wrote:
> spblunt@ozemail.com.au (Steven Blunt) writes:
> 
> > No offence to the newbies, but if you can't work out how to compile from
> > cvs, then perhaps you shouldn't be using it.
> 
> And how, precisely, is it you think people learn this stuff? Perhaps
> you were born with the knowledge of cvs imprinted on a microchip in
> your brain, but most of us had to learn it somehow. Usually by having
> someone else explain it to us, because the documentation for cvs is
> written for someone who already understands how to use it.

Why so intentionally abrasive, Michael?  I know you must be frustrated
as I've seen several posts from you recently, but that's no reason to get
sarcastic about things.

You asked how poeple are supposed to learn this stuff?

They read the CVS documentation.

They don't jump right into a development group and start asking questions.
When people (I'm speaking generally here) ask questions that are answered
clearly in the documentation, the unspoken communication to the others on
the mailing list is, "My time is more important then your time, so you spend
your time educating me rather then me spend time doing so."

I didn't know *anything* about CVS when I first heard about gnome.  I'm still
not an expert by any means, but now I can get around just fine.  If anyone
is not understanding the way CVS works, I suggest they spend some time at
http://www.cyclic.com.  In particular, http://www.cyclic.com/cvs/doc-faq.html.
It took me only a few minutes to ask freshmeat where CVS was found, go there,
poke around and find a bunch of documentation.  Not only that, I see by
doing a `rpm -ql cvs` that cvs comes with a bunch of info pages which are
also no-doubt very helpful.

I hope this helps you Steve and anyone else who isn't sure how to get
up-to-speed with regard to CVS.

Later,

Michael Sterrett
  -Mr. Bones.-
michael.sterrett@coat.com