Re: [Pan-users] [OT] Compiling question for KHaley and Heinrich (and everybody)

[walt]

On Sat, 02 Jul 2011 02:04:28 +0000, Duncan wrote:

> FWIW, while I'm gradually getting more comfortable with git, since I'm on
> Gentoo I was able to "cheat" on this, by looking at what the gentoo
> git-2.eclass ebuild helper library did.

Never occurred to me to read it, but I woulda-coulda-shoulda :)

I hate to snip all of your excellent post, but you know very well that pan
will make me feel incompetent and stupid if I quote the whole thing.

Between you and Petr I've learned some fun things about git that I never
suspected, so thanks to both of you.  I love git and I think every project
should use it.  Just IMHO, of course.

Before I start my rant about incompetent programmers <see below> I need to
thank Rhialto for giving me the very geeky answer that I was really asking
for with my original post.  That's what I wanted, thanks.

<stop reading here if you hate rants>

At work I use a variety of machines that, for no good reason, are controlled
by microprocessors.  And the programmers who program those microprocessors :(

I've been using the same machines since the mid-1970's and the basic purpose
of the machines, and the ways I use them, have not changed one iota in all of
those decades

Sadly, around the time of the dot-com boom, *everything* became digital, even
things like my machines, which are fundamentally analog, not digital, and
should have remained analog.

Just one sad example for those of you who haven't bailed on my rant already:

On a Monday about a year ago I stumbled into work to find a shiny new version
of a machine I'd been using for thirty years.  Hooray for capital budgets!

I sat in front of my erotically shiny new machine, finding a multi-function/
multi-level system of drop-down menus.  I don't need to describe them to this
audience.  You know what I mean.

My puzzle was, after thirty years of experience with such machines, is how
to urn the fscking machine ON.

I'm deadly serious -- I couldn't tell (even being a bit of a geek myself)
how to get the machine to listen to me when I wanted to start using it.

I hailed the first person I saw that morning and asked her if she knew how
to turn the fsking machine on.  Turns out, thankfully, she had been present
during the sales-rep's presentation and told me that I had to turn *the*
knob to such-and-so item and push the knob twice to "select" my choice,
thus turning the machine "ON".

I almost quit my job then and there.  Maybe someday I'll explain why I didn't
quit.  But first I need to explain it to myself.