process.env - documentation? - nodejs

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Message from discussion process.env - documentation?
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Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2012 12:21:09 -0500
Message-ID: <CAGkHjAWmjbVhEiW7LihrmL4gSCoDg0U+ZDhyHu5Zb2CggGt...@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nodejs] Re: process.env - documentation?
From: Tim Caswell <t...@creationix.com>
To: nodejs@googlegroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
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On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 12:04 PM, Chad Engler <Chad.Eng...@patlive.com> wrot=
e:
> Also, the unfriendliness stems from the fact that after answering your
> question, you didn=E2=80=99t like it. So we answered a different way, and=
 you called
> us condescending. Which means that normal conversation doesn=E2=80=99t wo=
rk, so I
> have to try a different approach; actually being condescending.
>

Chad, please be nicer.  Yes, he could have easily pasted the unknown
term into google.  That's exactly what I did when I had the same
problem years ago.  That doesn't change the fact that a part of the
node docs are hard to understand to part of our audience.  We should
thank the OP for pointing this out and helping us make node better for
others in the future.

>
>
> -Chad
>
>
>
> From: nodejs@googlegroups.com [mailto:nodejs@googlegroups.com] On Behalf =
Of
> SL
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 1:01 PM
>
>
> To: nodejs@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [nodejs] Re: process.env - documentation?
>
>
>
> Ok, last post as the vibe here is a distinctly unfriendly... It's quite
> simple: When I read 'see environ(7)' I assumed that was a reference to
> another part of the node docs.  When a reference is made to another sourc=
e,
> I'm used to seeing the source named.  If it had said 'see: man-pages
> environ(7)' there probably would have been no misunderstanding.
>
>
>
>
>
> On 1 November 2012 17:58, Chad Engler <Chad.Eng...@patlive.com> wrote:
>
> I really think all of this could have been avoided, and new knowledge
> consumed using this simple process that has guided me for years:
>
>
>
> 1.       Encounter unknown term, phrase, or idea
>
> 2.       Copy unknown term, phrase, or idea to clipboard
>
> 3.       Paste unknown term, phrase, or idea into a search engine search =
bar
> (I tend to use Google)
>
> 4.       Select =E2=80=9CSearch=E2=80=9D
>
> 5.       View results, which 98% of the time will clear up confusion.
>
>
>
> If this process fails, then repeat using similar terms. If that also fail=
s,
> then I usually head to StackOverflow/mailing lists.
>
>
>
> My point was there was no attempt to solve this besides =E2=80=9Ctell me =
what I need
> to know=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CWe should fix the docs so people who have n=
ever developed
> before can use them.=E2=80=9D
>
>
>
> -Chad
>
>
>
> From: nodejs@googlegroups.com [mailto:nodejs@googlegroups.com] On Behalf =
Of
> SL
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 12:49 PM
>
>
> To: nodejs@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [nodejs] Re: process.env - documentation?
>
>
>
> As you guessed, I'm developing on Windows.  Thanks for the understanding!
> Yes a link would have avoided all confusion.
>
> On 1 November 2012 17:42, Tim Caswell <t...@creationix.com> wrote:
>
> I've been using since before it was popular.  Back in the early days,
> the docs for node were full of references to linux man pages like
> this.  My background was scripting languages and I had never done any
> C programming so I had no clue what readdir(3) meant.   To open a file
> back then you had to manually bitwise OR the various unix flags
> together yourself. (Using "r", "w", "a", etc was an addition I made)
>
> Things now are much easier for people without a C background and there
> are many fewer parts left in the docs that assume knowledge of man
> pages.
>
> That said, I did eventually figure out it was referencing man pages.
> I was a linux user after all, I had just never used man to lookup C
> APis.
>
> How about we just link to one of the man mirrors in the API docs?  I
> was an experienced linux user and I still didn't know what the docs
> were talking about, I can only imagine how confused windows users
> would be.
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 11:34 AM, Chad Engler <Chad.Eng...@patlive.com>
> wrote:
>> It wasn=E2=80=99t condescending; =E2=80=9Ctopic(page#)=E2=80=9D like =E2=
=80=9Cenviron(7)=E2=80=9D is a very common
>> way to express man pages, and if you aren=E2=80=99t aware of what the us=
er
>> environment is you should probably do more research. Had you typed
>> =E2=80=9Cenviron(7)=E2=80=9D into google before getting butthurt at the =
docs, you probably
>> would have found out exactly what it was with no help from anyone. There
>> is
>> no reason to repost the manual page since there is already a manual page
>> for
>> it, the docs are fine the way they are; you just need to try to look a
>> little harder, or be grateful when people help.
>>
>>
>>
>> -Chad
>>
>>
>>
>> From: nodejs@googlegroups.com [mailto:nodejs@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
>> Of
>> SL
>> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 12:16 PM
>> To: nodejs@googlegroups.com
>> Subject: Re: [nodejs] Re: process.env - documentation?
>>
>>
>>
>> Wow, thanks for the condescending and arrogant comment!  I'm not
>> suggesting
>> there should be a 'tutorial' about any of those things you mentioned.
>> However the docs at the moment are IMO a bit ambiguous about this point =
-
>> it
>> just says "An object containing the user environment. See environ(7)."  =
I
>> didn't realise immediately that this is talking about the OS environment
>> variables - I'm sure I'm not the only one.
>>
>> On 1 November 2012 14:13, Matt <hel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> If the docs covered every aspect of how programming networks, child
>> processes, systems and filesystems worked they would be huge.
>>
>>
>>
>> There's a place for tutorials though - but it's not in the core docs IMH=
O.
>> If you don't know what an environment variable is then you have some bas=
ic
>> learning to do before diving straight into programming.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 7:28 PM, SL <bgs...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Or we could make the docs a bit clearer...
>>
>>
>>
>> On 31 October 2012 18:46, Jorge <jorge%jorgechamorro....@gtempaccount.co=
m>
>> wrote:
>>
>> On 31 oct, 17:26, Scott Elcomb <pse...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Jorge
>>>
>>
>>> <jorge%jorgechamorro....@gtempaccount.com> wrote:
>>> > On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, Bgsosh <bgs...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >> Hi, I'm tring to understand the structure of the process.env object,
>>> >> but
>>> >> the online docs just say 'An object containing the user environment.
>>> >> See
>>> >> environ(7).'
>>>
>>> >> I can't find 'environ(7)' (whatever that is!).  Is this documented
>>> >> somewhere?
>>>
>>> > Type this in the terminal:
>>>
>>> > $ man 7 environ
>>>
>>> That'd be tricky for Windows users to do if they're not running a
>>> *nix-like shell. (Cygwin comes to mind)
>>>
>>> I'd imagine the best bet for Windows users would be to search for "man
>>> 7 environ" on the web to find a copy of the relevant man page; there
>>> are a number of mirrors like the one Adam suggested.
>>>
>>> (BTW, for those not familiar with man pages, see also
>>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page>)
>>
>> Perhaps Windowzs users should better search for "environment
>> variables" @ msdn or something, I guess, yeah.
>> --
>> Jorge.
>>
>>
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