On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 17:20, Gunnar Hjalmarsson <nore...@gunnar.cc> wrote:
> Chas. Owens wrote:
>>
>> 2009/4/28 Gunnar Hjalmarsson <nore...@gunnar.cc>:
>> snip
>>>>>
>>>>> I believe the standard response is "patches are welcome." <grin>
>>>
>>> Are they? The number of open or "new" bugs at
>>> http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/
>>> makes me fear something else.
>>>
>>> ( I did submit a bug report a few weeks ago:
>>> http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=63620 )
>>
>> snip
>>
>> Subscribe to p5p[1] and submit the patch there with an explanation of
>> why you think it is a good idea.
>
> Are you suggesting that the FAQ answer at
> http://perldoc.perl.org/perlfaq2.html#Where-do-I-send-bug-reports%3f should
> better be ignored, and that approaching p5p directly is the way to get
> attention?
snip
I am saying that:
* you send bug reports for Core Perl to perl...@perl.org
(or use perlbug or http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/)
* you send patches to p5p
* patches are more likely to be acted on that bug reports
Walking into p5p saying "I think this warning should be changed" is a
good way to be greeted with "patchs are welcome." Coming with a patch
in hand might get you a decent hearing about what you want to change,
but understand that they might be reluctant to change it for reasons
you haven't thought of. Here is one: there are programs out there
that count on the warning messages be the same and you will break them
by changing it. Now, assuming they find the change to have any merit,
they must weigh the potential good of a more clear warning with the
potential bad of breaking things that count on the old message (e.g.
lint like programs). There will likely be some spirited discussion
about whether the people who would need the message changed would
bother to read it in the first place, if the new message would help
them if they did read it, if this is just an unavoidable bit of
learning curve, etc.
I can't predict how it will turn out, but I am willing to be the bug
report will be ignored because the warning message is not wrong (it is
provably right, if possibly misleading to new users) and they have
larger fish to fry.
--
Chas. Owens
wonkden.net
The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.
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