Re: Metaproblem, part 3

[Eric Abrahamsen]

David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> "Stephen J. Turnbull" <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> Eric Abrahamsen writes:
>>>
>>>  > It would be nice to explicitly let posters know that they can ask
>>>  > someone for help with implementing a feature/squashing a
>>>  > bug. There's lots of helpful advice here and on emacs.help, but
>>>  > that's not quite the same as knowing that someone has committed
>>>  > (to some extent) to assisting you.
>>>
>>> I see worries about "hostile" environment, and suggestions for making
>>> things more welcoming to new contributors.  I have to ask, what do
>>> all you folks who are suggesting Emacs change its procedures think is
>>> in it for the mentors and core developers?
>>
>> FWIW (not much), I have never felt any hostility here or in emacs.help,
>> and I'm not complaining about anything. Possibly I haven't felt it
>> because I'm coming in at such a low level that no nerves are touched --
>> I'm asking basic questions.
>
> See, that's your mistake.  The first steps towards feeling hostility on
> developer lists is to tell people that they are doing it all wrong but
> they are lucky you came around to tell them.  There are a lot of
> variations on the theme, of course.  But if you feel that a technical
> mailing list as such rather than, say, an isolated person having a bad
> day, act hostile, chances are that you score in that area.
>
>> The only reason I chimed in is because I'm one of those who would love
>> to contribute more substantially, but needs guidance. For example,
>> I've got the basics of an epub-editing mode in place. I'd like it to
>> be a solid library, and would likely need assistance to get it there.
>
> Can you figure out what is missing and phrase it into questions?  While
> there is the phenomenon that if you are asking 10 people, you'll get 20
> answers, I think that for basic problems the Emacs list will not split
> into so many different factions of "do it my way" that you'll get much
> more confusing answers from the group of people reading this list than
> you would get from a single tutor.

Yeah, I'm not sure anything new has come out of the "mentoring"
discussion besides the possibility of using a tag in subject line. There
are obviously many people prepared to help mid-level programmers, and
that's probably good enough.