Bug in ports howto question

[Brad Knowles]

At 10:16 PM -0800 2003/11/25, Allan Bowhill wrote:

>  You are changing the meaning of my statement and arguing against it,
>  pretending I said it. You are creating a straw man.

	No, he's not.  You took a definition that based on events and 
applied it to a completely different situation (skillsets), and then 
tried to continue to use the same term.

	Use the right term, the right way.

>  Now we get to the real reason for your attack. You have an expanded
>  view of systems administration to include programming.

	There are some aspects of systems administration that share a 
great deal with programming.  In those cases, whether you're doing 
"systems administration" or "programming" depends on on the broader 
context in which you are performing that action.

>  My position, correct or not, is that systems administration and
>  programming are two fundamentally distinct and exclusive areas.

	Wrong.  They have a hell of a lot of overlap.  There are some 
areas which are unique to one particular area or the other, but there 
is more overlap than not.

>  To tie this back to the original argument, I think the perception that
>  they are one in the same has led to unrealistic expectations on the Unix
>  front, that developers should also be expert systems administrators.

	Or vice-versa, that you all systems administrators should also be 
expert programmers.

	I agree with this conclusion, but I disagree with the way you 
have gotten there.

>  To have robust 3rd-party development, one should not expect all
>  contributing programmers to have advanced system administrative skills,
>  because such an expectation would be self-defeating.

	Also agreed.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+
!w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++)
tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)