Re: shortened flags affair, part 8: choosing appropriate flag (issue4312057)

[Janek Warchoł]

Hi all,

2011/4/7 Graham Percival <address@hidden>
>
> On Wed, Apr 06, 2011 at 10:36:15AM +0200, Janek Warchoł wrote:
> > 2011/4/4 Graham Percival <address@hidden>
> > > Think about it this way: how many times have you reviewed my build
> > > system patches, or Colin's documentation patches?  The same
> > > reasons why you don't review those patches apply to people looking
> > > at your patches.
> >
> > Perhaps... However seasoned developers can understand my patches while
> > i (mostly) cannot understand their patches, so i quite cannot review
> > them.
>
> You severely over-estimate either the number of "seasoned
> developers", or the skill of most people on this mailing list.
> There are between 3 and 7 people in the world who know this flag
> stuff as well as you do.
>
> The same goes for virtually every aspect of lilypond.  There are
> very few actual "seasoned" developers, and most of those are very
> busy with other things in their lives.  We all need to
> collectively stop feeling inferior, and start giving each other
> whatever support we can give.  If that means spending a few
> minutes reading a patch and saying "wow, looks complicated" or
> asking "silly" questions, then that's fine!  Any feedback on a
> patch is better than none.

Ok, i'll start reviewing other people's patches right after this
shortened flags stuff is finished.

> > May i ask for some help with this?
>
> I can give general advice on programming, not anything specific to
> this: find the smallest change which produces this problem.
>
> If you try to compile that file with git master, it should work
> with no problems.  Great!  Now try making *one* change to the C++
> file.  Did that change break it?  If so, then you've found the
> suspicious line.  If that change didn't break it, then undo that
> change and make a different one.  Or, if the change actually does
> any useful functionality, then get that really-small-but-working
> change accepted and pushed, before working on the rest of the
> changes.

Thanks, however the problem is that i don't know what i'm doing at all.
I don't know scheme. Trying to modify scheme code is to me like trying
to translate a sentence from one language i don't know into another
language i don't know.
I had tried to do this nevertheless, because it might have worked by
luck. It didn't. I've send that patch to show that i did try to do
this myself.
We are a team. Teamwork doesn't just mean having many people at work,
it means helping each other - i don't have to remind you, you surely
know this.
I know there are people here who could have written all the stuff i
did in an hour (maybe two) and have it pushed before Lent started,
while for me it required days of work over 3-months period.
Nevertheless i did what i could, because you're not here to fulfill my
wishes. But i know my limits: now i've reached the limit of my skill
and, more importantly, the limit of my psychical stength. I'm too
tired to continue trying to do things that i don't know how to do.
I ask for help and i hope that someone would take 15 minutes necessary
to get things going here.

I've done some fixes and the code passes the regtests. I'll open a new
Rietveld issue with it in a few minutes; issue 4312057 becomes
obsolete now.

cheers,
Janek