On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 1:27 AM, Milan Vavra via Pharo-users <pharo-users@lists.pharo.org> wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Milan Vavra <vavra_milan@yahoo.com> To: pharo-users@lists.pharo.org Cc: Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 09:47:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Pharo 5 accented chars bug/regression Thank you all, your feedback is appreciated.

You have raised many points and so I probably won't be addressing them all. But thanks again for all. I did read all the responses. I will re-read them for more inspiration.

I understand posting on this list is like going into a room with over a 100 people and saying something. So if 100 people spend 10 minutes to read this - that's a lot of minutes.

So I don't want to waste your time. Feel free NOT to read this. But if you do read this, there is an attempt at a joke towards the end. You might even find it funny. Or not.

I'm posting this through Nabble and it seems to post everything I post twice. Once as 'Pharo Smalltalk Users mailing list' and as 'Milan Vavra' too. I have no idea why. Enlighten me if you can.

My original motivation was and is to be able to show to a potential employer before and/or during the interview the sort problem fixing that I can do. Even should the job have nothing to do with Smalltalk or Pharo (then it might be an opportunity for a little Pharo/Smalltalk evangelism but I digress). If there is an easy way to show that version X has a problem - then I can show that I have the skills to fix that. If it is fixed in the meantime I can just point to the fixed version Y and say: "yeah, I fixed that". If there is some supporting evidence that should give more credibility to my other claims that are unverifiable due to the fact that they involved proprietary code that I just can not show anyone. So their value in an interview is limited because it depends on trust or a reference from someone else (trust again but vested in the reference). But the Pharo fix should be an independently verifiable claim. Of course there is a chance that I hired someone to fix that issue for me and I don't have the skills. So a few follow up questions should be in order to see whether or not I know what I am talking about.

You wont get the best value from this bringing it up as a new topic in an interview. Interviews are a big cost for the employer and usually by the time you get there, they already think they want you. The interviewer already has an agenda basically verifying things they have already learnt about you. What you want to do is get it on the agenda pre-interview, to help you get through the front door to interview stage. The *very* best thing you can do is write a blog about your experiences, then link to it on your resume. The interviewer *will* review it and they "get to know you" - which really helps you stand out in their mind from all the other pieces of paper that float across their desk. Take a few articles to write about your journey discovering Pharo, intermediate experience, what makes it stand out from other environments and culminate in describing your feelings about making your first contribution and *why* you've chosen to do so. You might even get your post linked from Pharo Weekly. btw, after your contribution is integrated, submit your details to be added to pharo contributors http://pharo.org/about

On positive feedback. I think negative feedback is ok. Please do give me negative feedback. I can take it. It can point me to perceived problems I were not aware of. What I do want however is ***constructive*** feedback. Actionable feedback. If you have a strong opinion state it clearly but it should be of the kind: "To do [thing] is stupid/ugly/whatever. We/you should do [something else] because [explanation]."

I think Peter raised the issue: "is it fair that everyone gets mentioned even though their contributions are not comparable". I am not ashamed to say: "YES!". However it is not the same as saying that what I can (potentially, you have not seen it yet) do is more valuable than what others did in making Pharo happen in the first place. I had a minor role in the movie. But I deserve a place in the credits. If there were no you (all of you who have contributed so far) Pharo would not be what it is today. A sexy development environment. If there were no me, someone else would have to step up and do what I did. I am fully aware of that. Me trying to contribute is a "thank you" of sorts to all of you.

Small contribution with big impact. In a way it is not that small a contribution considering the impact it can have on Pharo adoption. In Smalltalk "a little code goes a long way". Consider this scenario, a true story: I first downloaded my first Pharo back when 3.0 was new. On Windows XP. I played with it a little. Got excited (sooooo sexy!). But then came the blow. What? I can not type č? Is my keyboard broken? Severed cable? No? Oh ok. It just won't let me. There goes my contact management application. Bummer. It seems the IDE is not used by anyone in the Czech Republic on Windows. Otherwise someone would have noticed. Oh. Well. I don't have the skill to debug this yet. I am not sure how to report this. Oh well let's wait until someone fixes this. And it gave me the impression Pharo 3.0 is immature technology. This could be happening in any country that uses č as part of their language - Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia (Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia - for the russian characters). A year later Pharo 4.0 came out and it still was not fixed. Then Pharo 5.0 - same story. I have been learning Smalltalk in small steps on Squeak and Pharo trying things from SBE and PBE and my contact management example based on an excellent video by Laurent Laffont. To cut a long story short only this month I have reached the point that I was thinking maybe now I have what it takes to fix this. And the excellent videos of the Pharo MOOC definitely played a part too. Thanks to everyone involved. Anyway I tried to debug this issue and it worked. So what if you were able to wave the magic wand to make that bug go away? I have that wand. I'll see if I can jump through the hoops of the contribution process although it might take some time.

On a lighter note, I had a bright vision of how I could get some credit for being able to fix this. I would find hire some really hot hostess or two for an upcoming Pharo conference in Prague. They would have the following on their T-shirts. One: 'č, Č, ě, Anyone?' and the other 'Ё ,Л, М, Н, О, П, Anyone?' and 'Ask me how' on the back. :-). And their job would be to hand out my email address to anyone interested. Or even point to me standing in the distance. I bet they would command some attention.

I don't really want to be the one to discourage hot hostesses ;) but I think this would come across a bit false - like buying your way to fame. Your money is probably better spent on donating a few pizzas to the hacking sessions that often accompany these events. Or offer your time and effort into help organise the event (plus you end up interfacing with a lot of people.) If you a up for public speaking, be the one introducing the speakers, or get a ten minute presentation slot just to introduce yourself and give a newcomers perspective, for other newcomers in the audience to identify with and perhaps be encouraged to follow the same path. cheers -ben

Mentoring. It would be nice to know how to find a mentor for the contribution process, possibly beyond.

Thanks for your attention, Milan