[cfe-dev] scan-build man page

[Ted Kremenek]

On May 10, 2012, at 11:32 AM, "James K. Lowden" <jklowden at schemamania.org> wrote:

> But let me make one more point about time and how it's spent, now that
> we're friends.  Creating the man page for scan-build from scratch took
> an hour or so. The best and most appropriate response, not that I
> expected it, would have been Thank You.  The answer instead, on this
> list and off, has been that a machine could have done it.  The shortest
> and best answer to that might be: Show me.  
> 
> But I'm not that smart, so I engaged in a discussion, which discussion
> has so far taken me -- because I have to articulate my arguments
> carefully, in public, to people whose backgrounds I don't know -- about
> six hours.  And we're not done, and whatever system build fu we're
> going to have is also not done.  How much better those hours might have
> been spent creating other man pages instead!  
> 
> To you and the others who object on theoretical grounds, I say: Peace!
> Don't let's create a new problem to solve.  You didn't have a proper
> man page, and some guy in a time machine parachutes one in for you.
> Is it a puppy?  No!  Cool.  "svn add"!  Maybe he'll do another!  What's
> the worst case? A few hours over a few years dealing with -mdoc.  If
> that really turns into a hassle, you can go and build your
> doc-generator and "svn rm". Meanwhile, work deferred is time bought for
> something productive. What's not to like?  

I think you are taking all of my comments out of context.  I'm sorry I didn't properly thank you, but I did say I thought the man page "looked great".  That wasn't just lip service.  But I do want to do what is "right", and that is the point of discussion.  You characterize this as "theoretical grounds", and I can understand that perspective even though I don't agree with it.  To you it sucked that there was no man page.  I agree completely with you.  I also completely acknowledge that my original reply was probably too much a brain dump rather than a proper "thanks, and here is some feedback".  Perhaps I should have just accepted the patch as is, and then revised the man page later, but I thought you wanted some input on what that meant since you took the time to create the man page in the first place.

Review is part of how we do things.  I meant no offense to your efforts.  If your main concern is lack of a man page, I'm fine with adding one.  My questions more focused on what went into the man page, how it got there, etc.  These are important questions.  Should the man page serve as the comprehensive documentation for all things related to scan-build?  There have been different opinions on this thread.
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