Re: RFC: Dealing with MSDN errors.

On 3/12/2017 9:26 AM, Cesar Strauss wrote:
> On 03-12-2017 06:50, Keith Marshall wrote:
>> How should we best deal with reports of probable erroneous MSDN content
>> such as: https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2248/ ?
>>
>> Here, the poster provides an acceptable test case, which demonstrates
>> that the MSDN information is most likely incorrect, but can refer us
>> only to known sources of plagiarised Microsoft header file content, to
>> support his proposed correction.  Obviously, we cannot examine those
>> plagiarised sources, but should we just take his word for it, and
>> correct our headers, as he suggests?
>>
>> Opinions?
> 
> It would have been best if the reporter had found the correct prototype
> by trial and error. We cannot do that now, since we already know the answer.
> 
> You could argue that the correct prototype is now found in "publicly
> available documentation". Which, in this case, is the text of the bug
> report itself. We already consider Internet references like blog posts
> as "publicly available documentation", if I am not mistaken. You could
> add this on top of your patch:
> 
>   "MSDN is wrong. The correct type for parameter X is Y according to
> https://sf.net/..."
> 
> On the other hand, for such a small change, it could also pass as "fair
> use" instance, even if the source itself is copyrighted.
> 
> Maybe make the "documentation or references" requirement more explicit
> on the bug reporting page. We do link to
> http://www.mingw.org/reporting_bugs, but it is a bit buried in there.
> Maybe write a dedicated page, like the one on
> https://wiki.winehq.org/Clean_Room_Guidelines
> 

I think we just take the issue on its word value and make the change.  I
think MS would be fine with it based on their activity in Cygwin.  A bug
report should be filed with MSDN for the invalid documentation by the
original poster and the MSDN ticket given in the bug report ticket..

-- 
Earnie

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