Re: [PATCH 00/13] remote-hg: general updates

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: Apr 6, 2013, 14:09 UTC
Message-ID: <CDBF6E3BB68D4385B19C53A447186556@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To: <CAMP44s10HGpfz=r1m8QRFY4V+rAOkiRaerW1T=vHz2YpbBH6Zg@mail.gmail.com>

From: "Felipe Contreras" <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 1:45 AM

Show 5 quoted lines

> On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 4:30 PM, Max Horn <max@quendi.de> wrote:
>
>> On 04.04.2013, at 08:42, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>
>> Please consider [...]

> Ultimately this is not about people, this is about the code.

In the case of helper functions this is not the case.

The question would be better framed: "Does this, or that, helper function make users (people) feel helped, or frustrated (or somewhere in limbo)?".

I've called IT help desks and often felt frustrated, and some times I've got one of the good girls/guys who worked with me to improve my situation (often despite official policies). I get back to those folks (even if they 'failed').

It's not a binary black/white issue when real users need help. It's no good keeping with the faith (e.g. the Git ideal, the coders ideal, ..) when the users (a mixed group) environmental doctine differs.

>    A sensible person that is not emotionally attached to any code,

  [I'm thinking users here, they are emotionally attached to their 
original problem, and sense doesn't come into it]

>  would simply look at the code,

Unfortunately, even for reasonable coders, looking at the code isn't usually the case because of lack of time, unfamiliarity with the code, extent of the code, availablity of the code (they may be simply running a packaged/compiled 'app'), this is not that likely to happen. We should be thankful when folk do look.

It's hard enough to get "good" bug reports from fellow coders (they are only human / no more human than us) that tell us what _we_ want to know (rather than what _they_ remember, or was important to them). ;-)

I don't use Hg, but as I read the discussion, there are incomaptibilities between Git, and Hg. Thus neither helper can ever be perfect. The winners will be those who solve a user need with enough documentation and error capture to make them (their user group) feel happy. At the moment it looks like the discussion is stratifying into various "it worked for me" camps, each with their own problem children repos that won't respond to parental advice, even with a --force from social services.

Philip [As they say back home: Between thee and me, ther's nowt so queer as fowk, and I ain't so sure about thee]