A Record of Frustration in IT Industry

By Xah Lee. Date:

The following messages are posted to newsgroup comp.emacs, and some are also posted to comp.lang.lisp and or comp.lang.scheme. They serve as a historical record of the fact that i made these posts, as well as the problems so indicated in these posts. (these postings can be verified thru a newsgroup archive.) 

From:    Xah@XahLee.org
Subject:  gnu elisp manual gone
Date:  2005 October 29 4:05:01 AM PDT

http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/

it was there a few days ago. Now all links to it gives File not found.

 Xah
 Xah@XahLee.org
∑ http://xahlee.org/
From:    Xah@XahLee.org
Subject:  Re: broken documentation: Calendar/Diary link
Date:  2006 January 02 7:36:21 AM PST

go to
 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/index.html
and click on Calendar/Diary
The link
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/Calendar_002fDiary.html#Calendar_002fDiary
gets you “file not found”.

the link for “M-x”
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/M_002dx.html#M_002dx
also is broken.

clicking on two-columns doesn't work either.
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/Two_002dColumn.html#Two_002dColumn

perhaps the GNU people should run a local links check.
From:    Xah@XahLee.org
Subject:  FSF documentation's URL problems
Date:  2006 March 06 1:50:51 PM PST

are these not fixed yet? (see below my sig)

Although GNU people are commendable in their software quality and
documentation, and i hesitate to complain too much, but what is going
on here please?

also, on my website i have few links to elisp manual pages. For
example:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_chapter/elisp_5.html#SEC78
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_chapter/elisp_3.html

these links are now dead, propergating the user-frustration to readers
of my site.

What is going on?

 Xah
 Xah@XahLee.org
 ∑ http://xahlee.org/
From:    Xah@XahLee.org
Subject:  FSF documentation's URL problems
Date:  2006 March 12 9:28:36 PM PST

Freesoftware Foundatin's website has many dead links.

These in particular have broken since at least 2006-03-06.

•
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_chapter/elisp_5.html#SEC78

•
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_chapter/elisp_3.html

These has been reported in comp.emacs as early as early as 2006-03-06.

It was also broken at least in late 2005, in which i send a bug-report
to FSF and got a reply several week ago thanking and notifying me that
they were fixed. (and now apparently broken again)

----------
Also, the following are broken since as early as 2005-01-02

go to
 http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/index.html

and click on Calendar/Diary. The link

•
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/Calendar_002fDiary.html#Calendar_002fDiary

gets you “file not found”.

the link for “M-x”

•
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/M_002dx.html#M_002dx

also is broken.

clicking on two-columns doesn't work either.

•
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/Two_002dColumn.html#Two_002dColumn

These has been reported in comp.emacs, comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.scheme
as early as 2006-03-06.

 Xah
 Xah@XahLee.org
 ∑ http://xahlee.org/