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“The 's' is sad”: 4-year-old submits Linux kernel doc patch (2014)
- marmot777 8y agoThat is cute.
- zaphar 8y agoMy coworkers thought I was making a sarcastic comment (apparently I have a reputation) when I suddenly said out loud "That is adorable!". I then had to explain what I was talking about.
- marmot777 8y agoIts almost tears in my eyes level. I didn’t expect to have that reaction.
- black-tea 8y agoWhen I listen to a beautiful piece of music it can bring a tear to my eye. I shed a tear when my grandmother died. I have emotions. But can you explain how the hell this could bring tears to your eyes? Frankly, I just don't believe you.
- vinceguidry 8y agoYeah, I had the same reaction. I've noticed it whenever I see adults putting in an undue amount of effort 'just' to maintain a child's innocent expectation of a certain kind of universal justice. It's so not a part of the adult lifestyle anymore that suddenly being confronted with it affects those sensitive to it deeply. Christmas culture and thematics seems to target this dynamic.
- marmot777 8y agoI have a son who’s a small child so I see and encourage that magical world that we’ve all mostly forgotten about. Young childhood should be a human being’s respite from cold, hard reality. Of course, things don’t always go that way for children.
- fjsolwmv 8y agoHaving kids and supporting their interests is still part of adult culture.
- smhenderson 8y agoIt is! And a fun reminder that open source projects need help with more than just code, contributions to documentation are a huge help as well.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- commandlinefan 8y agoWell, now a 4-year-old has one more kernel patch than I have...
- LyndsySimon 8y agoThere's nothing stopping you, except finding the time. One of the things I'm most proud of as a dev is a tiny contribution to the Nim standard library. It's a single commit and very simple, but made the PostgreSQL adapter consistent with the other RBDMSs' adapters. At the time, I'd been using Nim for only a couple of days, but that didn't stop me from being able to contribute in a meaningful way. I'm amused and humbled that despite all of the work I've done over the past decade, it's quite likely that a seven-line change that I did mostly in ignorance will be the thing that impacts the most people going forward. Here's the change, if you're curious: https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/pull/6381/commits/921cc53e40f7d48643c0579ca83dedbfa4c500d0 https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/pull/6381/commits/921cc53e40...
- craftyguy 8y ago> There's nothing stopping you, except the one thing that stops a lot of people FTFY. There's a non-zero amount of time investment required to submit kernel patches (learning enough git, using the mailinglist, responding to questions, submitting revisions, etc)
- pravj 8y agoFeel the same way about my contribution to the Go language. :)
- brailsafe 8y agoGood catch there. Looks like you fixed one of those things that I'd waste hours on not realizing is the issue.
- steveklabnik 8y ago> I'm amused and humbled that despite all of the work I've done over the past decade, it's quite likely that a seven-line change that I did mostly in ignorance will be the thing that impacts the most people going forward. My most popular open source project, by the numbers, is a ~40 line Rack middleware I wrote when jetlagged at 2am. ~29MM downloads all-time, 984 github stars. I think about that all the time.
- purplerabbit 8y agoLove this, but was a bit confused because the patch is 4 years old, a fact which which confirmed my initial misreading of the patch being 4 years old (rather than the correct reading that it was by a 4-year-old)
- CGamesPlay 8y agoInteresting. I wonder if Maisa has gone on to write any more patches yet!
- gowld 8y agoLinus on trivial patches: https://lkml.org/lkml/2004/12/20/255 https://lkml.org/lkml/2004/12/20/255 [ Linux-kernel added back into the cc, because I actually think this is important. ] On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Jesper Juhl wrote: > Should I just stop attemting to make these trivial cleanups/fixes/whatever patches? are they more noice than gain? am I being a pain to more skilled people on lkml or can you all live with my, sometimes quite ignorant, patches? I do try to learn from the feedback I get, and I like to think that my patches are gradually getting a bit better, but if I'm more of a bother than a help I might as well stop. To me, the biggest thing with small patches is not necessarily the patch itself. I think that much more important than the patch is the fact that people get used to the notion that they can change the kernel - not just on an intellectual level ("I understand that the GPL means that I have the right to change my kernel"), but on a more practical level ("Hey, I did that small change"). And whether it ends up being the right thing or not, that's how everybody starts out. It's simply not possible to "get into" the kernel without starting out small, and making mistakes. So I very much encourage it... So please don't stop. Yes, those trivial patches _are_ a bother. Damn, they are _horrible_. But at the same time, the devil is in the detail, and they are needed in the long run. Both the patches themselves, and the people that grew up on them.
- golergka 8y agoI really hope that next time when somebody tries to paint Linus as an asshole and a toxic force for the community because of his rants, someone remembers to link this email too.
- hyperman1 8y agoIt demonstrates how Linus is not only a good programmer, but also a good leader. I get the same idea as with the first Gordon Ramsey Kitchen-fixing programmes. Apparently, people said it was insane how he dared to swear on TV. But basically, he notices things are very wrong, makes sure he gets to the bottom of the mess, and hammers the ugly message very publicly into some owner who lost any connection with reality. If the cost is some swearing, that's the least of the problem. The failing businesses get fixed at least as much on a sociological level as on a cooking level. Linus does the same. A big software project's problems are more sociological than technical in nature. Sometimes, the ugly message has to get trough, an another famous rant is born. But most of the time, work gets done, probably with a reasonable amount of smiles.
- _ikke_ 8y agoMailing list thread: https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/11/24/407 https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/11/24/407 > When I was reading the documentation, my 4-year-old > niece wanted to see what I was doing. After telling her, > she noticed that something was very wrong and asked > me to fix it. Instead, I helped her fix it herself.
- toddsiegel 8y agoSounds totally plausible. I never cease to be amazed by my 4-year-old's attention to detail. He notices everything.
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y agoEverything they do is the first time while grownups have done it dozens of time.
- comesee 8y agoBelongs on /r/thatHappened
- dymk 8y agoWhy?
- jimjimjim 8y agoI like it. and as a bonus she can add kernel dev to her linkedin.
- insulanian 8y agoOne has to be born with an eye for details... Well done!
- black-tea 8y agoI'm sure this was fun for the guy who submitted it but in the end just useless noise on the mailing list.
- chris_wot 8y ago“So please don't stop. Yes, those trivial patches _are_ a bother. Damn, they are _horrible_. But at the same time, the devil is in the detail, and they are needed in the long run. Both the patches themselves, and the people that grew up on them.”
- black-tea 8y agoI'm sorry but there's no way the 4 year old learnt anything from this. Maybe the adult did, though. Is that the point?
- caymanjim 8y agoShe learned that her opinion is valued. She learned that it's ok to question things. She likely had a sense, based on the activity that followed, that she effected change in some way. I'm sure it was explained to her, and while of course she doesn't understand what a kernel or source code are, she surely had a sense of some positive accomplishment.
- zamalek 8y agoThe world will become a better place if all kids get this golden treatment. I wish we could so easily push trivial changes to society but, in a very small way, this ripple in the ocean did.
- berbec 8y ago"See this? We just need to change one little thing. There is a problem with the program and we can fix it: the president variable is orange. Let's work on that"
- Torkel 8y agoWonderful story :) From date in mail list (https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/11/24/407 https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/11/24/407) seems like [2014] should be appended.
- wolfgang42 8y agoDone! I didn't notice the date when I submitted the link, thanks for the suggestion.
- LyndsySimon 8y agoNice attention to detail! Perhaps, if you have some time later, you could read over the Linux kernel docs?
- booleandilemma 8y agoAnd here I am spending my afternoon tracking down a null reference error...
- oh_sigh 8y agoThe best part about this story is that it is entirely plausible that a 4 year old found the problem, unlike a lot of stories where we are supposed to think there is a 6 year old wunderkind submitting code patches to some OSS project.
- ProAm 8y agoUntil a 4-year old can deal with the efficacy in which Linus communicates with other humans they should not be allowed to submit patches.
- anticensor 8y agoIt takes some time to get used to Finnish style of management.
- ahje 8y agoNo worries -- based on their names, I'd say the girl and her uncle are Finnish as well. :)
- jgamman 8y agothe difference between a community and a workplace is its tolerance, and need, for whimsy...
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI kept wondering where to find the change. I didn't initially realize it is apparently included. But this seems to be it here (from the bottom of the page): 1.9 Ext4 file system parameters ------------------------------- +-------------------------------
- iNate2000 8y agoYes, I was also confused looking for one of "those things [=]". I guess it was actually one of these things [-]. :D
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mojomark 8y agoFor the love of god I still don't see an 's' with a missing (or newly inserted) "=". I've spent way too much time looking at this
- chrisper 8y agoThere is a - missing under the s of parameters.
- notatoad 8y agoit's slightly confusing, because in the change the first dash on the first line is a "minus", indicating that line was removed, not part of the line of dashes. the line of dashes had one dash added to the end of it. (and it was a dash missing, not an equal) 1.9 Ext4 file system parameters [-]------------------------------ [+]-------------------------------
- yfiapo 8y agoI've submitted many such small corrections to OpenBSD to help keep that standard high. No one will place those contributions on the same level as real development but I like that I've helped. And I know I appreciate it when even the documentation is kept at the same bar. One of the reasons I fell in love with OpenBSD was the commitment to correctness throughout the entire system. This is a lot harder with Linux because they only control the kernel and not the entire distribution.
- beefhash 8y agoPlease keep doing that. I'm still hesitant to contribute to tech@ with code and have yet to find a fixable issue in the man pages/FAQ in my own usage. But I do appreciate that the details are oh so right very often.
- crankylinuxuser 8y agoAnd here's how you get junior kernel devs :D I hope you're still hacking on it and other projects, Maisa Roponen... Now 8 year old!
- cperciva 8y agoSo typical of Linux kernel code quality: The commit message refers to a missing '=' but the commit actually fixes a missing '-'. ;-)
- la6470 8y agoAnother stunt ... will ten parents please back off
- zozbot123 8y ago"The 's' is SAD!" looks like something that our POTUS could have written. It must be nice to realize that Trump is literally tweeting at the intellectual level of someone who is literally 4-year-old.
- sctb 8y agoThis is not the substantive commentary we're here for, so could you please not?
- kenneth 8y agoThis uncannily reminds me of how I first learned to program (at ~10 years old, not 4, sadly). Growing up, at my grandparents house, we had a communal old Mac (running OS 7 or 8, and BeOS for a while). Being a curious kid, I would often watch my uncle play Civilization II, and I would play myself. One day, I went to observe what he was playing, and instead it was programing in FutureBASIC. It sparked my interest, and he taught me the basics. This became a lifelong hobby, and I went from learning FutureBASIC from him, to then discovering a whole world of information online, learning REALBasic and PHP next, and C, Objective-C, and more. As a teenager, I made Mac apps and websites, and eventually when the iPhone came out, mobile apps. This gave me disposable income in high school (from selling shareware) and funded my one-way ticket and move to Silicon Valley. A simple gesture like that, that sparks the right interest, can give someone an entirely different life and career.
- mistercow 8y agoThe shareware era of the Mac was a magical time to be a teenage programmer. It’s one thing to get the validation of an adult’s approval, but something else entirely to have them pay you for something you built without knowing your age.
- fjsolwmv 8y agoI bought shareware once 30 years ago and never got the promised unlock code in response. That stopped me paying individual strangers for software via mail.
- DougN7 8y agoDoes anyone else have serious doubts about a 4 year old reading Linux kernel code?