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Author Topic: Discussion point: FPC/Lazarus versions and OS identification  (Read 659 times)

MarkMLl

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A couple of weeks ago somebody took it upon themselves to make a snide comment about the signature I'm currently using.

A number of other people have sigs which reflect personal taste or political preference.

Despite the longstanding Internet tradition that what somebody uses as his sig is a private matter provided that it is not offensive, I'd like to suggest one thing in the context of this forum: it is not a good place to put FPC/Lazarus version number and OS identification in the context of a question or announcement.

The problem is that while Usenet (plus mailing lists etc.) stores the sig as part of the message at the time it's created, the SMF forum software uses the user's settings at the time a posting is displayed. Look at this as an example:

I'm creating a program already quite large, so I used the time function successfully, the other day but always within the program I used the time and now I no longer restitute result! But if I open a new project and try to run the time it works! Who can explain why?
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Win10, Ubuntu and Mac
Lazarus: 2.1.0
FPC: 3.3.1

The message is dated 2010, but the forum software tries to convince us that Windows 10 is relevant. Really?

While this might be great fun on a day-by-day basis, it is worse than useless when encouraging a tyro to look for existing discussion of his problem, either using the Forum's own search facility or via Google.

So please: when people give FPC version etc. in the context of a problem they should be encouraged to put it in the body of a posting, not as boilerplate in their sig. Or if they do put something like that in their sig, it should have an "As of..." date unless obviously unnecessary.

MarkMLl
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

Zvoni

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Re: Discussion point: FPC/Lazarus versions and OS identification
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2022, 11:57:13 am »
Agree with Mark.

Everyone asking for help should state the Host-Environment (e.g. Windows 10 64-Bit, FPC 3.2.0 32Bit, Laz2.2.2 32Bit) upfront.
Additionally maybe state the Target.

I know it from other Forums i'm a member of, that a lot of time is lost (nevermind that misleading answers, even if unintentionally, lead to different outcomes)
e.g. (and this is a "classic")
User: "Can someone help me with this SQL-Query?"
<Insert some "helpful" answers from some Members>
User: "The Replace-Function doesn't work"
Me: "Which DBMS are you using?" (since the User didn't mention it anywhere)
User: "MS Access. I'm trying to query the database from my App i'm programming"
Me: "BOOM! The JET-Engine doesn't understand the REPLACE-Function. Use a different Provider/Driver or do the replace from Frontend"

Result?
User is frustrated for some days, just because he didn't state his environment.
One System to rule them all, One Code to find them,
One IDE to bring them all, and to the Framework bind them,
in the Land of Redmond, where the Windows lie
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Code is like a joke: If you have to explain it, it's bad

MarkMLl

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Re: Discussion point: FPC/Lazarus versions and OS identification
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2022, 12:43:06 pm »
User is frustrated for some days, just because he didn't state his environment.

It might be necessary to guide an inexperienced user to provide version and OS details, but considering the extent to which modern Internet users consider anything turned up by Google to be valid information without investigating context or follow-on messages those details should be wrung out of them as early as possible.

Noting that StackOverflow is getting increasingly unwelcoming, but there's something to be said for the community's insistence that the original message should be edited to include as many relevant facts as possible.

But my major point is: this stuff should /never/ be in a sig.

MarkMLl
« Last Edit: July 01, 2022, 12:49:57 pm by MarkMLl »
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

Martin_fr

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Re: Discussion point: FPC/Lazarus versions and OS identification
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2022, 09:30:16 pm »
But my major point is: this stuff should /never/ be in a sig.

+1

<sarcasm>
It is much better placed in the "personal text" shown below the users avatar, on the left of each post
</sarcasm>

Actually, people can put it in their sig, but if it is relevant to their query they should put it into the query too.

When I read a question, I usually stop at the line where the sig starts. So I don't even read it. I have more than once asked "Your OS?", just to get the reply "In the sig".

For me it's a loss of a few seconds.
But if my reply should by chance be the one that will help, then or the person who placed the question it's another day to wait for it. Their loss.

PascalDragon

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Re: Discussion point: FPC/Lazarus versions and OS identification
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2022, 04:31:05 pm »
When I read a question, I usually stop at the line where the sig starts. So I don't even read it. I have more than once asked "Your OS?", just to get the reply "In the sig".

Same. ::)

 

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