[aur-general] AUR package updating enhancements

Xyne xyne at archlinux.ca
Thu Aug 27 13:20:26 EDT 2009


Nélson «VuDu» Cunha <vudu.curse at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ok,
> five consecutive negative replies ought to be enough, even if some of
> them look like they just read the last reply before them and simply
> missed my point.
> If I would've start this in the forums instead and maybe I could get a
> couple of neutral or even positive (in a constructive way) comments,
> who knows?
> Clearly my fault... this is a mailing list after all!
> 
> Still, thanks for the replies ;)

After having read the previous discussion in which I was initially for
the idea before some good points were made against it, I no longer have
a strong opinion one way or the other.

Having said that, I will add that I think it's unfortunate that so many
people have a visceral negative reaction without truly considering the
benefits. Some replies clearly show misunderstandings that would not
have arisen if the idea had been approached with an open mind (e.g.
the need to handle md5sums*, the "complexity" of "implementing" an
editor**). I'm not saying that this would have led to a different
outcome, but it would have been nicer to have a neutral conversation
about it rather than several posts throwing everything they could think
of at the idea, including points which don't even apply.

It's like suggesting to go to the beach and instead of someone
objecting with "I think it's too cold today... have you checked the
weather?" you get a 5 minute tirade about much it sucks to get sand in
your clothes, how swallowing seawater is bad for you, that UV radiation
is bad for the skin, that driving to the beach costs money and creates
pollution, that people die in tsunamis on beaches, that you can be
eaten by sharks, etc... which all boil down to the objector really
saying "I haven't left the house in ages and I don't wanna.".


* The PKGBUILD itself is not md5sum'd.
** It would be a simple textarea. Wtf said anything about keyboard
shortcuts and syntax highlighting?

(Again, I'm not supporting the idea, just criticizing the
grumpy-old-man approach to the discussion.)


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