[gentoo-dev] Re: emerge -C eselect-python disaster

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Dale posted on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:06:06 -0600 as excerpted:

> I am subscribed to -user as well.  I been using Gentoo since the 1.4
> days.  This is about improving portage which is a good thing to talk
> about here.  The devs do it, not the user.  ;-)  Also, I already know
> how to use portage pretty good.  I'm not asking for support just trying
> to improve things.

Do note that there's a portage-specific list as well.  IDR what the name 
is but on gmane (where I follow it) it's the 
gmane.linux.gentoo.portage.devel newsgroup.  It's not a user list either, 
but they're reasonably friendly and it wouldn't be bothering the non-
portage devs that way.

As for this, I say let it be (except for possibly making -C output a 
bigger warning in general).  The documentation is pretty clear, and Gentoo 
never has been about hand-holding.  If a user can't read the documentation 
and thus asks to screw themselves, Gentoo provides the tools to do it -- 
and they're POWER tools, too! =:^)  I don't see that changing and don't 
believe it should.  There's other distributions out there for users who 
want or need a namby-pamby baby-sat hand-held version. Gentoo is not and 
never has been the right choice for them, and I don't believe we should be 
trying to make it so.  (That said, a warning on -C similar to that on -c, 
might be wise, but that's an implementation detail the discussion of which 
doesn't belong here.)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman