*sigh* I guess I just have to get over the fact that such a simple oversight has marked me a typical windows user, but seeing as how no one wants to leave my name out of this, I might as well try to respond constructively.
As has been said, some people, like myself, are just a little newer to gentoo than others or by sheer dumb luck didn't make all the same mistakes as everyone else.
Dave, dear heart, get over yourself. My question was never about you, per se, but rather about a class of users which you represent (which I can't even specify except in extremely broad and general terms), and your issue was just a convenient example of problems that such a class of users can easily encounter.
And if you want to get all hung up on using the term "typical Windows user" like it's an insult or curse, well, that's your issue, not mine. With Microsoft having some 90% of the computer market, the vast majority of computer users are "typical Windows users", so it better not be an insult or a curse, cause we're way outnumbered.
How do we make it better? We could point out the exact offending file. Or say that an error was found while parsing config files or init scripts. There are plenty of things that could be done, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort in this case as it was just a simple typo that spawned this whole discussion.
Anyone can make typos, so this is actually a point of discussion, since it is a common user error that can and has happened to all of us.
But I still want to know if pointing out the exact offending file (which normally is what happens, but this is seemingly a special case) would actually be of any use to the "average (migrating) user", because if
/file/that's/causing/the/problem: where_and: what_the_problem_is
is not understandable to such a user, then it doesn't matter whether we point out the exact offending file to the user, and if they don't read the error message in the first place due to "cultural" factors, it doesn't matter if the error is displayed or not.
All I'm asking is why you, as a specific user who did not understand an error message sufficiently to use it to solve your problem, did not understand the error message sufficiently to solve your problem, in order to discover how this and other error messages could be made understandable to you and users similar to you in the future. Other new (to Linux, to computers, to Gentoo) users are more than welcome to submit some data. My ultimate goal is to contribute some assistive resources to help you all over the hump, but I can't do that unless people tell me what assistance they need. I really dislike "non-helpful help".
"Error found while parsing config files or init scripts" is definitely a somewhat better clue in this case, even though it doesn't tell you what init file to search, so it may not be as helpful as it looks. So, does this mean that in the specific instance of emerge errors involving depcache parsing, the answer is as simple as "fixing" Portage to produce a "custom" error message for that case somehow (i.e. submitting a bug report for Portage)? That would be something "doable", at least.
Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
