On Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 3:48 PM Eric Blake <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > While I'm not opposed to your patch, I don't think that chasing the > > > windmill of making configure snippets warning-free is going to be > > > worth it, because in the end, it won't change the results of those > > > configure tests. > > > > I do not understand what you mean by "chasing the windmill", and the > > top result on Google Search > > (https://iit.adelaide.edu.au/news/list/2021/04/29/chasing-the-windmill-what-is-wrong-with-the-us-approach-on-developing-country) > > seems to be about developing countries. Is this some cultural > > reference that non-English-speaking people are not supposed to > > understand? Could you please use expressions for which the meaning can > > be easily searched on the Internet? > > I'm sorry if I was unclear, I did not mean for an idiom to get in the > way of understanding. > > https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/dont-go-chasing-windmills.2539680/ > is probably closest to my intent, a reference to Don Quixote's attempt > to chase (or fight) windmills - it may look fantastic, but is it > really accomplishing anything? (And since the source for that > reference is from classic Spanish literature (Miguel Cervantes), not > English, I'm actually surprised that it now comes across as an English > idiom)
Thanks for the reference. Searching on the Internet led to a definition on https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fight-windmills for "to fight windmills", which is much closer to the French meaning (the quote in French is « se battre contre les moulins à vent », which is the literal translation of "to fight windmills"). "Chasing the windmill" is an expression which does not exist in French (nor in https://www.collinsdictionary.com/), which is why your message was unclear to me. > > > > On the topic, I agree that "making configure snippets warning-free" is > > not a great objective, and is quite difficult because static code > > analyzer software tends to report many false positive issues. But here > > it is a real fix and I find it inappropriate that you reply with a > > message which translates to "you are doing something idiot, please > > stop this stupid thing, static analysis is worthless". In my opinion, > > I can carry patches on my own which help reduce the number of false > > positive issues reported by static analyzer tools (without involving > > any upstream discussion), but when I find a bug I prefer to report it > > and help upstream developers to fix it rather than keeping it for > > myself. This is why I submitted a patch and I believe such an approach > > is what makes free software possible, instead of calling the work of > > someone else "not worth it". > > Email is absolutely the worst means for conveying emotion and intent, > because that was NOT my intent to put down your contribution. In > fact, I even realized that before I hit send, since I added: > > > > > > But lest I sound too negative, thank you for reporting what you found, > > > and for providing a patch! > > But I will apologize again for sounding unappreciative of your patch, > because that was not my goal. You are right that submitting patches > you have is the best way for the project to move forward. Thanks. And in that spirit of moving towards a world where people understand each other and work together to make it better, I would like to share an advice: when you use a cultural reference in an email, you may wonder whether this reference is international/cross-cultural enough to be understood without ambiguity. If its meaning is not in the top 3 results of Google Search, it is definitely not. Best regards, Nicolas > > > > > > > The information contained in this email and in any > > > > document enclosed is strictly confidential and is intended solely for > > > > the > > > > > > Legalese blurbs like these are unenforceable on a publically-archived > > > mailing list; you may want to consider using an alternative account > > > that does not append your employer's text on your mails to open source > > > lists. > > > > Sorry about this. I posted the patch from my professional email and > > missed the fact that my employer added a few weeks ago a configuration > > to GMail which automatically adds this blurb, even to full-text emails > > sent to mailing lists. > > Thanks! That indeed makes it easier to reply to your mail without > worrying whether I'm getting in trouble with your employer. > > -- > Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer > Red Hat, Inc. +1-919-301-3266 > Virtualization: qemu.org | libvirt.org >
