Re Start Fresh

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014, nick wrote:

> I am attaching a patch, here that I assume is trivial but good. This
> is in order to prove I am serious about this.

> Nick

  *sigh* ... while i'm here, let's discuss the appalling silliness of
your patch, not so much so you can learn from it (since you are simply
unteachable) but so that others might learn and avoid ending up
embarrassing themselves as you have yet again.

  let's ignore the fact that, even after months of people telling you
to read the documentation on how to submit a patch, you submitted it
as an *attachment*, which the documentation tells you explicitly *not
to do*. that is strike one, and there are so many more strikes coming,
oh, dear god, yes, there are.

  let us also ignore the crippling triviality of that patch (we'll be
coming back to it, though). let us notice that it touches two files in
two entirely different subsystems -- drivers/net/ and drivers/usb. the
instructions for submitting patches encourage one to try to localize
patches to a particular subsystem so they can be more easily accepted
or rejected by the maintainer(s) of that subsystem. ignoring that
advice, you create a patch that spreads itself over two entirely
different subsystems. that would be strike two.

  continuing in that vein, the documentation strongly encourages one
to, when submitting a patch, CC the *maintainers* of the subsystem in
question. which you did not do. strike three.

  SIDE NOTE: when submitting trivial patches, one is also encouraged
to send such patches to the email address "trivial at kernel.org". i'm
assuming you've never heard of that. le *sigh* ...

  continuing, yes, there is value in correcting even mistakes in
comments, but typically only if there is the possibility of the
comment typo perhaps confusing or misleading someone. here, however,
it's highly unlikely that anyone will read the word "FIMXE" and think,
"gosh, i wonder what that means."  but here's the worst part.

  nick, you have relentlessly assured all of us, time and again, over
and over, repeatedly, that you want to become a proficient kernel
programmer. you have yammered on about how you want to dig into the
networking stack and, oddly, the btrfs code as well, as if those two
had anything to do with each other. and yet, here you are, having
invested time in producing a patch that fixes two meaningless typoes
in two comments, a patch with which you have learned absolutely
*nothing* about kernel programming.

  what did you learn about the fundamentals of kernel programming from
submitting a patch that fixed two obvious and trivial typoes in two
comments? no, wait, don't answer that, let me tell you -- sweet f**k
all. you are so obsessed with getting *something* into the kernel log
that you've been reduced to searching for worthless spelling mistakes
in comments, then making a total mess of submitting fixes even for
those.

  you are simply unteachable, nick. but i hope you'll be a life lesson
for other would-be kernel hackers who can appreciate all the mistakes
they should avoid making.

rday

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Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
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