Re: load average and parallel execution

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:48:39 +0100
> From: Sam Ravnborg <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> 
> And the manual documents this:
> 
> More precisely, when make goes to start up a job, and it already has at least 
> one job running, it checks the current load average; if it is not lower than 
> the limit given with ‘-l’, make waits until the load average goes below that 
> limit, or until all the other jobs finish.
> 
> How did you miss this?

He could miss it because the manual doesn't do a very good job to
connect the dots between the paragraph you cited and the previous one,
which Ali cited and misunderstood.  The text describes, in rigorous
mathematical way, the algorithm used by the implementation of the -l
switch, but it should instead describe what the user of Make will see,
and make that description follow logically from the previous
paragraph.

Please stop assuming that any question that seems (to native English
speakers) to be answered in the manual is necessarily asked because
the person who asks the question didn't bother to read the text or
make the minimal effort to understand it.  Please allow for some
reasonable amount of misunderstanding, and please realize that part of
that misunderstanding is the fault of the authors of the manual, not
necessarily of its "lazy" readers.

> Since you asked I assume you already tried this and concluded
> something else than what is written in the manual.
> If my assumption is correct then please include this info.

He already said what he concluded: that the manual was in error.  That
happens, you know, as no one is perfect.  When I see something in a
manual that doesn't make sense to me, I consider this possibility as
well.  I'm sure you do, too.

> In other words - please show that you actually _tried_ to understand before
> you decided to ask.

There's no such requirement for messages posted on help-SOMETHING
forums.  People who are annoyed by those they perceive as clueless
have an excellent choice: to say nothing in response.