[wp-forums] SVN Complaints

[Mika A Epstein]

Otto already talked to him in http://wordpress.org/support/topic/better-svn-instructions?replies=18

I removed his comments in the 5+ month old posts (I'm glad he thinks he's getting better support, I didn't think it made anyone on 'support' happier), and flagged him with a B-flag for now in the hopes he might calm down a little.

He has a point. SVN is hard and it's frustrating and it's complicated. The directions are sparse, but they do link to the expanded ones. They're also very WordPress specific, touching on what most of us need when we get started.

But Jan has a point to. You DO need to learn the skills, and yes, there is a level you have to reach before you can build a plugin. Programers are expected to know how to program. Same thing.

I remember finding SVN overwhelming when I first looked at it, but I had zero grounding in CMS systems at the time. Years later, when I picked up WP, I'd used a couple systems and it was a lot easier. It was a case of trying to run before you can walk. And until I could run, I didn't SVN push out any code, I 'released' it locally.

Point is, yes, it's written in a way that makes sense to people who are familiar with the basics of programing. That's a detriment but also a benefit, since last I checked, you didn't need to be a programmer or a developer to contribute to WordPress. You can help out in myriad ways, and not being comfortable with SVN is something you can, if you WANT to, get over. Or you make best friends with Otto and trick him into doing it ;)

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Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org

On 5 Feb 2012, at 1:17:31PM, Kathryn Presner wrote:

> Wondering if anyone wants to chime in here, particularly wondering
> whether this guy should be steered to another venue, like the plugin
> mailing list?
> 
> Richer SVN instructions?
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/richer-svn-instructions?replies=2
> 
> kp
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