Re: [cdt-dev] our newsgroup

["Alain Magloire" <alain@xxxxxxx>]

> 
> "I'll just mention one thing that strikes me as extraordinary, even unique 
> : the excellent technical support provided in the Eclipse newsgroups by 
> the actual people who wrote the code. I know of no commercial product 
> whose support is nearly as good, and no other open source project whose 
> developers are so committed to answering any and all questions thrown at 
> them."
> 
>         - Bob Foster, from the foreword of "Eclipse in Action" (Gallardo, 
> Burnette & McGovern)            (Hi Ed if you're reading this!) 
> 
> I think it would be fair to say that we as a group have not been living up 
> to this claim (although one could perhaps debate its validity). 
> 
> Mikhail & I are the two regulars on there, and we do our best to handle 
> things within our scopes, but still at least a third of all posts do not 
> get an official response from the CDT project.  A lot of the questions 
> that come up relate to build, tool and platform integration work that I am 
> not that experienced with because I have not, up to this point, used the 
> CDT to build a real project. 
> 
> If we are serious about getting more individual developers (like my man 
> Victor) contributing to the project, then we must come across as being 
> proactive, organized and responsive to the community. 
> My proposal is as follows : 
> 
> A)  At least until we release CDT 2.0, each developer and tester should 
> take 10-15 minutes a day to peruse the newsgroup and answer anything that 
> they can.  I understand that everyone is busy, but so am I and I still 
> take the time because it is important.  The alternative is that I take an 
> hour every day and bombard you all with forwarded posts via email. 
> 

Point well taken.

In defence, the developers, at least here, have other tasks
(with the usual, stress and deadlines) then the open source CDT work.

However, you may not seen right away a change, lots of devs are going on vacation
summer and all (including yours truly..).

> B) We need to maintain a FAQ and post it to the newsgroup once a month. 
> 

I thought Kleo raised his hand to do this?

> Questions, comments and hate mail are always welcome, 
> 

Sure ... I'll take a shot.

<low punch>

At one point, QnX developers were handling all in the CDT (newsgroups, mails, code, patches,
feedbacks etc ..).  We are quite(read __very__ 8-) happy that you guys are stepping in to
take some heat 8-).
It's funny to observe when the tables are turn.

</low punch>