Re: bug#20968: 25.0.50; Be able to specify the output directory for `byte-compile-file'

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA>]

[ Please take out the 20968@... from the Ccs.  ]

> That's not the use case I was talking about.  Looking up questions
> already asked means using a search engine, which will find the answers
> wherever they are, be it on gnu.emacs.help of stack-overflow.

No, the curating (tagging, voting, and editing) makes a significant
difference: you don't need to read N different messages (hopefully
connected via threading) to get the overall picture.

When I search (via, say, DuckDuckGo) for answers to a particular
problem, I generally find that the answers I find in stackoverflow are
generally more directly usable and of higher quality than what I may
find elsewhere.  Sometimes I can get more details and info in the
developer's mailing list archive, but it takes more effort and technical
expertise to find it and digest it.

> I was talking about someone who wants to ask a question never
> asked/answered before.

In that case it mostly depends on who's available to answer
the question.  I think in this respect the average proficiency level on
emacs.stackexchange is very much comparable to that of gnu.emacs.help.

As for redirecting people to *us* (i.e. emacs-devel or debbugs), I find
it neither harder nor easier on stack-foo than on gnu.emacs.help.


        Stefan