From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2004-08-29T11:31:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Perldoc Equivalent?

Dave Thomas wrote:

> 
> On Aug 28, 2004, at 21:00, James Britt wrote:

>> But as these sorts for questions come up semi-regularly, I'm putting
>> together a ruby-doc FAQ to help explain getting ri working.  Is there a
>> specific way you would prefer to be reached if someone has a problem?
> 
> 
> I'd really rather you didn't. Instead, I'd like to find out what issues 
> folks have and then make things so that no FAQ is necessary.

Well, these are already FAQs; what remains is what to tell people when 
they ask them.  I haven't installed from source lately, but as I recall, 
rdoc/ri file were not installed by default.  So, FAQ #1 is, How do I get 
ri working?  Currently, it is not obvious to enough people, so they ask.

Some people, after trying to run rdoc to create the ri files, have 
problems.  Sometimes it's because they ran rdoc on the wrong directory. 
   If that's the case, then see FAQ #1.   Sometimes there's some other 
issue.   When they ask about this, should the response always be, 
"Contact Dave Thomas?"

I'm not saying you shouldn't be informed of problems, but what do people 
do while waiting for an answer?  If there are known issues on certain 
platforms, or certain distributions, and known workarounds for these, 
why not simply pass them on while they are being taken care of, and 
forwarding the details to you?

Thanks,

James