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“The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

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Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#111

Post by wink »

sytelus wrote: post #77
gowld wrote: post #9

Linus on trivial patches: https://lkml.org/lkml/2004/12/20/255 [ Linux-kernel added back into the cc, because I actually think this is important. ] On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Jesper Juhl wrote: > Should I just stop attemting to make these trivial cleanups/fixes/whatever patches? are they more noice than gain? am I being a pain to more skilled people on lkml or can you all live with my, sometimes quite ignorant, patches? I…

Linus says: > I think the trivial patches are among the most important ones - exactly because they are the "entry" patches for every new developer. I have been running a fairly successful open source project and this is not exactly my experience. I guess about 70% of pull request I get is simple spell, grammar, white spaces and the likes. Some time folks send this in wholesale because they want their personal favorit…

Not my experience at all. And even if true, it wouldn't matter. Someone found a problem.

They can

a) ignore it

b) file a bug/shout on irc

c) do a pull request.

I much prefer c over b, and both over a. Every little bit helps, and it's improving the current state. I've hardly seen people doing extensive (as in hard to review) commits that looked like busywork to get an 'I commited' badge of honor (is that a thing?) in any repo.

And I also do that all the time, if I find some thing that's quicker to fix via PR than even find the external bug tracker or the irc channel? Everybody wins.

Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#112

Post by fjsolwmv »

mistercow wrote: post #96
kenneth wrote: post #75

This uncannily reminds me of how I first learned to program (at ~10 years old, not 4, sadly). Growing up, at my grandparents house, we had a communal old Mac (running OS 7 or 8, and BeOS for a while). Being a curious kid, I would often watch my uncle play Civilization II, and I would play myself. One day, I went to observe what he was playing, and instead it was programing in FutureBASIC. It sparked my interest, and…

The shareware era of the Mac was a magical time to be a teenage programmer. It’s one thing to get the validation of an adult’s approval, but something else entirely to have them pay you for something you built without knowing your age.

I bought shareware once 30 years ago and never got the promised unlock code in response. That stopped me paying individual strangers for software via mail.

Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#113

Post by fjsolwmv »

vinceguidry wrote: post #54
marmot777 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its almost tears in my eyes level. I didn’t expect to have that reaction.

Yeah, I had the same reaction. I've noticed it whenever I see adults putting in an undue amount of effort 'just' to maintain a child's innocent expectation of a certain kind of universal justice. It's so not a part of the adult lifestyle anymore that suddenly being confronted with it affects those sensitive to it deeply. Christmas culture and thematics seems to target this dynamic.

Having kids and supporting their interests is still part of adult culture.

Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#114

Post by jnurmine »

black-tea wrote: post #34
chris_wot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“So please don't stop. Yes, those trivial patches _are_ a bother. Damn, they are _horrible_. But at the same time, the devil is in the detail, and they are needed in the long run. Both the patches themselves, and the people that grew up on them.”

I'm sorry but there's no way the 4 year old learnt anything from this. Maybe the adult did, though. Is that the point?

Even 4 year olds comprehend much more than you seem to give them credit for. Do you think small children are somehow unable to understand things they are interested in if you explain to them on their level?

Maisa in this case probably learnt that there are grown-up text things like books on the computer, and it is a big thing if things do not line up and a letter is "sad". It is important to computers and people using computers.

And then to fix it for other people so that their "s" is not sad you write a letter with a computer and explain how they can fix it.

It might be interesting to hear her own memories of this, if she still remembers the episode.

Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#115

Post by PhasmaFelis »

core-questions wrote: post #74
golergka wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, all Linus rants that I've seen are entirely reasonable. Yes, calling someone stupid is rude, but rude things should be used in extreme circumstances. And when a single developer can negatively affect millions - wait, actually, billions - of people around the world with a stupid patch, that's exactly the case where being rude and aggressive is entirely reasonable.

> all Linus rants that I've seen are entirely reasonable Spot on. I'd hate to be on the receiving side, but look at what we've all gotten from this effort - in a Machiavellian sense it really has been the correct choice.

If you cuss and scream at someone, and they subsequently do what you wanted, it does not follow that they only did that because you cussed at them.

Re: “The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)

#116

Post by berbec »

unmole wrote: post #103
berbec wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if she got corrupted by the dark side and works for FB now!

FB employees submit loads of interesting kernel patches.

They do indeed! The current state of the open source community owes quite a bit to for-profit companies working on the code.
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