Re: the Linux man-pages as an educational tool

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Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]> writes:

> Hi Branden,
>
>> Date: 2026-08-02 21:09:08-0500
>> From: "G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]>
>>
>> At 2026-08-03T01:42:57+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
>> > > > > Date: 2026-08-02 16:27:21-0700
>> > > > > From: Collin Funk <[email protected]>
>> > > > > I can't help but wonder of what happens in WG 14 rejects this
>> > > > > controversial, as obvious by this thread, change. Will the
>> > > > > man-pages changes be reverted?
>> > >=20
>> > > > > Or will we slowly watch them document personal
>> > > > > preferences instead of existing standards?
>> > >=20
>> > > BTW, as I showed in another subthread, strncpy(3) did contain
>> > > opinionated comments well before I was involved.  If you're really
>> > > going to accuse me of that, better make sure you get the history
>> > > right.
>> >=20
>> > Oh, and while at it, please also read my review of glibc's own
>> > opinionated and bogus documentation about string truncation.
>>=20
>> I don't think this rhetorical tactic is a sound one.  You are implying
>> that because Collin (and perhaps others) are not on record as having
>> already consistently opposed editorializing in the glibc manual, or in
>> the Linux man-pages prior to your stewardship, that they are hypocrites.
>>=20
>> First, that's not necessarily true.  Who's read every word of either
>> work?  Who had already done so 5, 10, or 20 years ago?
>
> He doesn't need to have read every word of the glibc manual, but this
> precise text he could have read it, because it was mentioned by Paul in
> this thread (different subthread) prior (19:28 UTC) to his message, and
> reviewed by me also prior (20:31 UTC) to his message (23:27 UTC).

I often reply as I go rather than reading all other emails around that
time. I don't think you should assume he read those emails and
deliberately neglected their contents.

>
> 	Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 14:28:33 -0500
> 	From: Paul Eggert <[email protected]>
> 	Message-ID: <[email protected]>
>
> 	Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 22:31:59 +0200
> 	From: Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]>
> 	Message-ID: <am-eAGL6OWqP9Yah@devuan>
>
> 	Date: Sun, 02 Aug 2026 16:27:21 -0700
> 	From: Collin Funk <[email protected]>
> 	Message-ID: <[email protected]>
>
> Also relevant is the fact that he accused me of "slowly" documenting
> "personal preferences".  His wording implies that it wasn't there
> before.  Maybe I misunderstood, though.  I'd be happy to rectify if I
> was wrong.

I think he meant in general?

>
> While he didn't need to know whether it was there before, it would be
> good to make some effort to learn whether that was the case, before
> making such a serious accusation.

I took it to be that you (as you've said yourself) have a different
style from Michael and this does involve a more opinionated (you may not
call it that) approach. He's commenting on that being unfavourable to
him. I didn't think that was contentious, more that you see it as your
duty wrt education.

>
> ...

> sam

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