Apur-phy.248
net.news.b
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!pur-ee!purdue!pur-phy!crl
Tue Mar 16 21:53:45 1982
Re: future news update conventions
Please, please, PLEASE!!! I really wish all bug fixes would come out
NOT in the diff -e format. I feel that this is a trend to nip in the bud
before it becomes too common. I know that it takes less time to transmit
them, but I usually make a fix in this way:
/* Bug fix from USENET -- crl <DATE> */
. . . text of fix . . .
I do this so someone else can realize who made the change and why. Also
what if quite a bit of local code is added? It is unrealistic to believe
that all installations will keep the code completely pure. A diff -e
just doesn't give enough context to install the fix, if the code is too
far away from the original to even see easily, let alone having an editor
do the changes automatically. In fact, I would never use an editor script
to do the changes, because, especially if I wasn't taking total control
of a piece of software, I would never trust the file to be a "vanilla"
version. I even feel this way about normal diffs--I absolutely enjoyed
working with the "expanded context" version, that placed !'s, +'s, and
-'s next to the changed text, and had 3 lines surrounding the change.
If others feel this way about the subject, speak up! I can't be the
only one who feels this way!
On another topic, why does 'expire' use the Expiration date on the article
itself, if the default for the system is shorter. We want to keep them
around only 1 week here, but all the articles have the 2-week default
so they clutter up our spool directory immensely. Is there an easy way
to fix this, before I start looking into it myself?
Charles LaBrec
pur-ee!physics:crl
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