[ic] Re: What's wrong ? was [Re: Beima's Response] (Jim Balcom)

[IC-Admin]

Jim Balcom wrote: 

> But, what upsets me is that when I, as well as other people, ask for
> help in understanding what piece we have pulled out, we are told to
> RTFM for Construct Something - a manual that I have not yet found. 
>
> [snip]
>
> I need either a Users Manual for Construct Something, or else a sharing
> of experiences with others that have explored Construct Something and
> their discoveries. (And, I don't think that a Users Manual exists,
> because it is only a Demo)


You overestimate the capability of the Akopia/RedHat/MikeHeins team to
adjust the original docs to their continuous changes, enhancements and
new demos. That's a lot of work. All I can say is, that you just have to
be more patient. As a sig says nicely. Be patient, God is not finished
with "them" yet (Mike Heins and the team behind him). You also have to be
patient with members of the list. Many don't know the answers to a lot
of questions, because they are learning and trying it out themselves.

The work on the documentation has to be financed, writers need to
learn themselves to write up something meaningful. IC has undergone a
lot of merging, reorganization and addition of new features lately. The
real books are not written about it yet. And everyone does what he is best
in. That means with regards to Mike Heins, that he will write code
not docs, and with regards to the knowledgables on the list, that they are
busy trying out the code and learning about the changes themselves.

Don't forget that all of us use free code and free docs, put together by
people who can only make money with it by consulting you against a fee. If
you are fair, you won't find really anything to complain about. 
Someone (may be you, I don't remember) said previously that it is
unreasonable to make the customer frustrated with the RTFM advice and that
the customer is always king. That's right, but usually this makes sense
only for paying customers. (And I know you will get a royal
treatment if you *are* a paying customer. :-)) 

It is simply a lot of work to continuously enhance the package with new
features and at the same time write the documentation for it. It is even
more difficult, if two pieces of software merge into one. This is still
a package heavily in development, it's a free package and all I can say
is, that I think everyone is doing his best to make a complex learning
process less so with whatever free docs or advice you can get on this
list. 

BF