Re: Reporting bugs: there is nothing to gain in frustrating reporters

[Dan Kegel <dank at kegel dot com>]

Scott Robert Ladd wrote:
> I have ample evidence that
> many people feel that the GCC developer community is not very welcoming.

I haven't found this to be the case.  Perhaps that's because
I try to control my urge to post frequently (oops, guess
I'm screwing up here!), and because I try hard to come
up with minimal test cases when I have problems to report.

> 1) Bugmasters could be less perfunctory and pejorative in their
> comments. Examples have been given.

Politeness is always a good idea.
However, if you poke a bear with a stick often enough,
he will growl.  If you tell a gcc developer over and over
he is wrong, for instance, I think it's understandable
for him to becom cross.

In any big project, there will always be developers who are sometimes
cross and impolite (e.g. certain library maintainers who shall
remain nameless) but do stellar work in general.
When you run into such a bear, it's best to just
grit your teeth, remain polite, and be thankful he's
contributing to the project.

> 2) A mentoring system could help bring along new GCC developers. I'm not
> talking about hand-holding, I'm suggesting that having some place for
> people to ask a few questions, one on one, to get over certain
> conceptual humps.

What about the IRC channel mentioned earlier, posted
prominently at the top of http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki ?
And then there's the GCC summit, if you're really serious.

> 3) To keep Steven's bloodpressure down, I suggest a new mailing list,
> gcc-design, where engineers like myself can propose designs and concepts
> without upsetting those who find such discussions annoying.

I think what gets peoples' blood pressure up is
endless discussion about how they ought to do their
business.
- Dan

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