From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 4 May 2001 03:47:00 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 4 May 2001 03:46:50 -0400 Received: from [207.106.50.26] ([207.106.50.26]:3598 "EHLO snark.thyrsus.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 4 May 2001 03:46:39 -0400 Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 03:47:19 -0400 From: "Eric S. Raymond" To: "Albert D. Cahalan" Cc: CML2 , kbuild-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [kbuild-devel] Re: Why recovering from broken configs is too hard Message-ID: <20010504034719.B10356@thyrsus.com> Reply-To: esr@thyrsus.com Mail-Followup-To: "Eric S. Raymond" , "Albert D. Cahalan" , CML2 , kbuild-devel@lists.sourceforge.net In-Reply-To: <20010503034755.A27693@thyrsus.com> <200105032358.f43NwOB84159@saturn.cs.uml.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <200105032358.f43NwOB84159@saturn.cs.uml.edu>; from acahalan@cs.uml.edu on Thu, May 03, 2001 at 07:58:24PM -0400 Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs X-Eric-Conspiracy: There is no conspiracy Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Albert D. Cahalan : > Procedure: > > 1. throw out all junk symbols (could try spell checking first) > 2. mark non-default settings as read-only > 3. add missing symbols as needed to meet constraints > 4. add any additional missing symbols > 5. mutate the config until it works... user may ^C when bored You can't be serious. You invite the poor user to sit through an indefinite, unpredictable, and *large* number of mutation passes hoping the stupid search will trip over a solution? That's a far worse waste of their time than telling them to correct by hand in the exceedingly rare cases that would be necessary, in my considered opinion. A more egregious case of using a bazooka to swat a fly I've seldom seen. Can we restore some sense of *proportion* here? -- Eric S. Raymond Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak. -- George Orwell, "You and the Atom Bomb", 1945