[ic] Pee-Poor Documentation Rant

[Matthew Schick]

On Mon, 2002-01-14 at 08:28, Prasit P wrote:
> 
> If RedHat wants this e-commerce application to be widely
> used for Linux, it should rewrite the document.  Its
> document is just like easily take out comments from perl
> scripts and put it together without source code, like the
> blind watching a movie.
> 

FYI, my Grandfather is blind and can tell ya more about a movie that
most of the folks in the theater that can see the screen.  It's not
about 'seeing' it's about understanding.

> Even you are Perl knowledgeable, you won't be able to
> figure out easily what the document is trying (or not) to
> tell you.
> 

BS!  My Perl skills are far from perfect, but the more I've learned the
easier the docs are to read.

> I personally like this application, but the deep learning
> curve here pull me back a little bit.  I'm sure it kicks a
> huge bunch of others out too.  
> 

Ya know, this software IS free.  Meaning Mike and RedHat don't make a
dime from folks downloading and using it.  Their money is made from
doing development.  Why in the world should they pay a full-time staff
to write documentation that would actually hurt their cash flow?  I
always love hearing the rants of folks that get something for free, and
then have to bitch because they don't get exactly what they want.

I started playing with Tallyman and Minivend, and quickly graduated to
IC when it was released.  I personally find some of the documentation to
be a bit obtuse, but I consider time spent figuring things out to be my
investment.  I mean I haven't paid anything for this unbelievably
complex and powerful software, why not spend the time?

> I believe RH knows what the result of good software with
> poor documentation is.  
> 

Yep.  Consulting and support revenue for the creators of the software!


This is Open Source software folks.  If you don't like something about
it, change it!  If you aren't gonna help fix it then quit your
bitching.  You don't like the documentation, write your own.  I've seen
some great FAQ's and How-to's come thru the list here recently.  Kudos
to those authors, and hopefully we will see more contributions like
these.

> Prasit
> 

<snip>

</rant_off calling="work">

Matt