Hi Todd,
i'm not one of the Raku devs, but i'd like to add my two bits
here.
To begin with, i'd just like to note that there's no need for
quotes when referencing the C programming language, just as
there's no need for quotes around Raku: "the C programming
language", not "the 'C' programming language".
ToddAndMargo via perl6-users <perl6-us...@perl.org> writes:
Tip: Arrays in C are indexed starting at 0, as opposed
to starting at 1. Be nice it that was in NativeCall's
documentation too
In my experience, /most/ programming languages in general use have
0-based indexing, rather than 1 (Lua is one exception that comes
to mind). So when dealing with a new language, i assume 0-based
indexing, unless explicitly told otherwise. Regardless, any decent
introduction to the basics of C will mention its 0-based indexing.
You presume "C" programming knowledge from Raku programmers. ...
So "is left as an exercise to the student" means the student
should first take a course in "C" programming to get around
all the goofs and oversights in the documentation?
i think what's being presumed is that if one is accessing C-based
functionality, one has to know or learn at least the basics of
C. This is no different from documentation presuming that if
you're calling out to a shell from Raku, you'll read the shell
documentation to learn how the latter works. The volunteers
working on Raku have enough on their plates as it is; expecting
that they should write an tutorial on the basics of C, when
there's already a plethora of such resources available elsewhere,
seems like an inefficient use of their time.
i understand that you're trying to optimise how you use your time,
and that you would like your specific use-cases catered to, so
that you don't have to spend more time learning programming beyond
that which you strictly need for your work. But from all the posts
i've seen from you over time, it feels to me like you're in a
false economy: if you spent some regular time learning some basic
things about programming in general (e.g. about object-oriented
programming, or signatures) that are not immediately relevant to
your needs, you might well find that 'future you' would be able to
solve a number of your problems without having to wait on others
to answer your questions. Additionally, the people currently
spending their time and energy explaining various programming
concepts to you, which are well-explained in detail elsewhere,
will have more time and energy to contribute to other parts of the
Raku ecosystem.
You have often said that you are grateful for the work being done
by volunteers on Raku. To me, however - and perhaps to a number of
other people on this list as well - your words regularly seem to
be belied by your actions. Your posts can come across as you
feeling entitled to have volunteers devote their limited time and
energy to your specific needs, rather than to 'the big picture'
and the differing needs of others, including the needs of the
volunteers themselves. (If it turns out you've actually paid Raku
devs for a support contract, and they're not meeting their
contractual obligations, then i apologise.) So i wasn't surprised
to see at least one of the devs - someone i've elsewhere observed
to be committed to civil and constructive discussion about
challenging issues - start to lose patience with some of the
attitudes implied by your actions. i'd thus like to suggest that
you take some time to pause and reflect on how you interact with
this community.
Alexis.
