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Hubbard Asks FreeBSD Hackers To Rename EDOOFUS
MobyTurbo writes "Jordan K. Hubbard, on instruction from Apple, had to inform the freebsd-hackers list that the error, pointed to by the error message number named EDOOFUS, must be changed. Several interesting suggestions have been made in the resulting thread."
From the article, it doesn't seem like Apple actually asked Hubbard to do anything, nor does it seem like he's saying it "must be changed"... he's just proactively trying to solve a problem before it forks into a silly headache. No need to inflate the drama of the situation any more than it's already going to be.
The assumption that anyone who makes a mistake is a 'doofus' doens't surprise me much at all.
/* this should never happen */ into your code.
I think people are misunderstanding the purpose of this error. EDOOFUS doesn't mean "someone has made a stupid mistake" -- it means "*I* have made a stupid mistake". People aren't editing each others' code to add EDOOFUS; they're using it in their own code.
Much better than simply writing
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hmm, Can anyone else picture the strings leading from Jordan's fingers to Steve Job's fingers. I mean cmon, does it really matter? Its like asking a friend to build you a bikeshed then bitching because they didn't do a good enough job.
Frankly most people found it to be a very innocous request. Jordan never demanded anyone change it, and pointed out that if need be, Apple will maintain the changes themselves. The point was that should people start using this ERRNO outside of the kernel, then programmers will need to maintain two different sets of ERRNO values. Just kinda silly.
I think that it adds more character to freebsd than a stale, sterilized and bland OS.
EDOOFUS may add more character, but I think it adds the wrong character. Frankly, it isn't even that funny. Who the hell uses the word doofus anyway?
Then he has the balls to say that he likes a specific name.
Saving some face there Jordan? Good try bud.
Frankly, if you don't think this is a lot funnier, you need to get a life... or possibly actually sit your ass down and read Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Even Wilko Bulte though this was funny and suggested changing the error number to 42.
Ohh yeah, One more thing. Fix it yourself lazy ass.
Jordan has already said he would fix it himself. He was simply trying to avoid future incompatibilities.
Do us a favor, if you are a FreeBSD user then please consider switching to Linux.
JKH posted this to the developers' list. I don't think he was intending to throw weight around, but more likely ask the guys who actively develop to make a simple change.
Only when it becomes Slashdot discussion does it suddenly seem like he's using politics to change FreeBSD from behind the Apple tree.
Yeah, slow news day indeed.
Anyway having wasted my time reading through the thread I might as well waste a few more seconds venting my opinion.
First off, whoever the idiot at Apple who is pushing you to fork to avoid the horrible indignity of having the word doofus in the source code is, he should be fired. Yesterday. God, that's just lame. Particularly considering it's in a place that amounts to a note amongst the programmers saying 'if you get this you did something really dumb' - it's not going to users and it's perfectly appropriate in context. I read all your soft-pedaling about not being humour impaired yourself, and I think you needed to do that, this request is just so bloody silly it's unbelievable.
That said, I do think the EDONTPANIC suggestion is a very good one. There is nothing wrong with EDOOFUS, but EDONTPANIC is better, so maybe something good came of this.
Of course my opinion means nothing, my only connection to FreeBSD is the fact I'm typing this on my TiBook, and I'm going back to work now. I don't envy you, though, if your job requires you to cater to people that are willing to fork because EDOOFUS offends them then you are really earning your money in my opinion. Glad someone is, if Apple ever dies I'll cry, I really love my TiBook and I would hate to ever have to go back to an x86 based laptop. ;)
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Since when did Apple step into this issue? Hubbard even said his request had nothing to do with Apple asking anyone anything.
----- Wtcher Dragon, UDIC
Jordan has a point (as he usually does when he speaks up). An errno like that isn't something that's going to be burried in some kernel code for no one to see - that's something that programmers will have to use. I do not use silly variables and function names in my software for several reasons, #1 they aren't descriptive generally and #2 it's just not professional.
..... but that's just my opinion, I could be wrong..
I also agree with Jordan that this individual errno name is trivial but I believe his concern is that it's the start of a trend that could make programming for BSD an exercise in trash talking and English slang.
The idea isn't that FreeBSD committers can't call their errno EDOOFUS, but rather Apple can't as a matter of style. Therefore, EDOOFUS threatens to make the separation between FreeBSD and Darwin/MacOS-X one iota worse than it already is. Forking is an unfortunate necessary evil, and despite the "openness" of the code, there is another dimension of usability, which means portability in this case.
If you make your code open, but people have to add a lot of macros to adapt your code, it isn't as good as if they could just use it as-is. A good programmer is always looking for any affordable way to make his programming effort more useful with less work to make use of it. It's the wisdom of forward-thinking laziness. If your code is hard to adapt, who cares if it is free? The cost of re-use includes blood-and-sweat of integration. Ideally there would be no blood-and-sweat to reuse FreeBSD code. A bad joke (admit it: hacker humor is mostly bad inside jokes) is not a good reason to fork a file IMHO; I agree with JKH.
--- Nothing clever here: move along now...
It is damned funny. But I do think it at least supports his contention that he does, in fact, have a sense of humor.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat