> >*sigh* I guess I just have to get over the fact that such a simple > >oversight has marked me a typical windows user, but seeing as how no one > >wants to leave my name out of this, I might as well try to respond > >constructively. > > > >As has been said, some people, like myself, are just a little newer to > >gentoo than others or by sheer dumb luck didn't make all the same mistakes > >as everyone else. > > Dave, dear heart, get over yourself. My question was never about you, > per se, but rather about a class of users which you represent (which I > can't even specify except in extremely broad and general terms), and > your issue was just a convenient example of problems that such a class > of users can easily encounter. > > And if you want to get all hung up on using the term "typical Windows > user" like it's an insult or curse, well, that's your issue, not mine. > With Microsoft having some 90% of the computer market, the vast majority > of computer users are "typical Windows users", so it better not be an > insult or a curse, cause we're way outnumbered. >
haha, well I do think of it as an issult to some extent, but consider the issue dropped. > >How do we make it better? We could point out the exact offending file. Or > >say that an error was found while parsing config files or init scripts. > >There are plenty of things that could be done, but I'm not sure it's worth > >the effort in this case as it was just a simple typo that spawned this > >whole discussion. > > Anyone can make typos, so this is actually a point of discussion, since > it is a common user error that can and has happened to all of us. > > But I still want to know if pointing out the exact offending file (which > normally is what happens, but this is seemingly a special case) would > actually be of any use to the "average (migrating) user", because if > > /file/that's/causing/the/problem: where_and: what_the_problem_is > > is not understandable to such a user, then it doesn't matter whether we > point out the exact offending file to the user, and if they don't read > the error message in the first place due to "cultural" factors, it > doesn't matter if the error is displayed or not. > I agree, to many (whether they be typical windows user or linux newbie) the extra information would probably not help which is why I said such efforts many not be worth developer's effort. > All I'm asking is why you, as a specific user who did not understand an > error message sufficiently to use it to solve your problem, did not > understand the error message sufficiently to solve your problem, in > order to discover how this and other error messages could be made > understandable to you and users similar to you in the future. Other new > (to Linux, to computers, to Gentoo) users are more than welcome to > submit some data. My ultimate goal is to contribute some assistive > resources to help you all over the hump, but I can't do that unless > people tell me what assistance they need. I really dislike "non-helpful > help". > I thought we already beat the life out of this... I simply didn't make the connection from the error message to the problematic file. I recieved the message after each emerge. It wasn't until after I submitted my first post that I saw the similar error in the initialization scripts. I also fond the error message when running env-update. It was a slow process of piecing the clues together, so I posted here, but I did try to resolve it on my own first... > "Error found while parsing config files or init scripts" is definitely a > somewhat better clue in this case, even though it doesn't tell you what > init file to search, so it may not be as helpful as it looks. So, does > this mean that in the specific instance of emerge errors involving > depcache parsing, the answer is as simple as "fixing" Portage to produce > a "custom" error message for that case somehow (i.e. submitting a bug > report for Portage)? That would be something "doable", at least. > > Holly > -- > [email protected] mailing list > Dave
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