On 10/26/13 10:17 AM, Steve Litt wrote:
On Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:53:35 -0600
Ken Springer <snowsh...@q.com> wrote:

I'm not a programmer, learned many years ago that is not for me.  But
I did contribute, for free, to writing the help files of a commercial
program for a platform now long gone.

But, as I wrote in
news://news.gmane.org:119/l4bi37$vh$1...@ger.gmane.org, if I help by
reporting bugs I find in a program, assuming that reporting is
requested by developers, shouldn't there be some thanks shown by
fixing the bug?

Depends.

Imagine a buddy, who is a skateboarder, asking you for a critique of
his style while doing tricks. Both of the following could be considered
"reporting a bug":

1) I think you need to bend your knees more.

2) No wonder you're always losing contests, falling down, and just
    generally screwing up. Your knees are straight. How unprofessional.

#1 garners a "thank you." #2 garners "what a douchebag!"

Thanks,

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance

Not the same situation, Steve. In both examples, fixing my friend's skateboard "bugs" result in a feature of his skateboarding that gives me something I can use. :-)

If I report a bug in a piece of software, fairly obviously it's something I use but is broken. When the bug is squashed, then I and everyone else has something they can use.


--
Ken

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