Do you feel bad because of the Python docs?

[Bob Hanson]

[problem reporting bugs]

You'll be delighted to know that everybody will have to sign a
contributor agreement if they're supplying a patch file on the bug
tracker, see
http://blog.python.org/2013/03/introducing-electronic-contributor.html
and http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2013-March/124540.html

Thanks, Mark. I have other responses to reply to, as well. I
suspect that between your advice and the others, I'll learn how
to help with at least doc bugs, soon.

And sorry for the late reply. I changed ISPs (dialup to DSL)
which turned out to be a major... uh... event for the geniuses at
the telephone company out here in the "frontier" of the Oregon
Cascades.

Regards,
Bob Hanson

 

[Bob Hanson]

[trouble reporting bugs]

Works for me.

Please try again, and if it still does not work, please email me off-list
and I will help you either set up an account or report a tracker bug.

Thanks, Steven. I'll likely take you up on your offer to help me
off-list via email as I also wanted to talk with you about your
circular-means function in your stats package.

I do want to help with doc bugs. I'll probably have to get fairly
involved to be able to submit more major doc-bug patches -- as
others have said.

And, as I said to Mark, sorry for the late reply.

(I was without internet access for a few days while the experts
at the phone company once again attempted to simulate minimal
competence culminating with their "DSL install expert" -- who had
never heard of Linux -- trying to puzzle out my desktop.)

Regards,
Bob Hanson

 

[Chris Angelico]

(I was without internet access for a few days while the experts
at the phone company once again attempted to simulate minimal
competence culminating with their "DSL install expert" -- who had
never heard of Linux -- trying to puzzle out my desktop.)

I know exactly how that feels. Back in 2002 or thereabouts when we got
our current Optus cable connection installed, we were an all-OS/2 shop
(and we still have a good bit of OS/2, but there's some Windows and a
good bit of Linux around now too). Rather than go through the hassle
of having the guy try to figure out OS/2, we just rigged up a
temporary Windows box and let him have his fun. Soon as he'd left, we
unplugged the network cable from that machine and plugged it into our
router (and then did a MAC address clone in the router, as for some
reason the device was set to accept traffic only from the NIC the tech
had installed).

Funny, though, that Linux is still able to be obscure.

ChrisA

 

[Bob Hanson]

[Bob Hanson wrote:]

I've tried twice to register with the bug tracker -- including
just before sending this post. [...]

[other details and errors snipped]

I had wanted to report doc bugs, too, as I used to do copy and
line editing. I seem to be able to find typos and such rather
easily, but reporting said bugs -- not so easy.

From http://docs.python.org/3/bugs.html

"Documentation bugs

If you find a bug in this documentation or would like to propose an
improvement, please send an e-mail to (e-mail address removed) describing the bug
and where you found it. If you have a suggestion how to fix it, include
that as well.

(e-mail address removed) is a mailing list run by volunteers; your request will
be noticed, even if it takes a while to be processed."

For anything more than trivial changes (typos, grammar errors), a
tracker issue is better. But the above is better than nothing.

Thanks, Terry. I've been wanting to contribute for years, but a
variety of issues (details of which are not relevant here) makes
my helping improve the documentation probably the best fit for my
abilities and situation.

I do notice trivial changes, but I also feel some of the
documentation could benefit from a much more thorough general
editing to improve both ease of reading and general clarity.

Contributing in this way sounds like I'll want to get more
involved and probably do the contributor-signing thing and such
-- or whatever steps I need to follow.

And again, sorry for the late reply -- I was without internet for
a few days while I changed ISPs.

Regards,
Bob Hanson

 

[Terry Reedy]

I do notice trivial changes,

I am currently set up again to do doc changes, so if you already have
some non-controversial changes to the *current* docs, the online html
versions, go ahead and email them to me.

but I also feel some of the
documentation could benefit from a much more thorough general
editing to improve both ease of reading and general clarity.

Big edits will need discussion on the tracker and will likely be opposed
by someone.

Contributing in this way sounds like I'll want to get more
involved and probably do the contributor-signing thing and such
-- or whatever steps I need to follow.

Please do the agreement thing now. We just added the e-form a week ago
and with that are getting more serious about asking for the agreements.