On 2/14/07, Nick Kew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One problem here is that this kind of docco usually needs to be made > by those who hate to write it: the core programmers. The core programmers use the core programmer documentation, aka the source code. In particular, the .h files, which give you detailed API documentation.
That's true for current core programmers, but the lack of sane "doccos" about core/module development raises the entry barrier for potential future core programmers and makes things such as "start depending on behavior in the system that isn't actually documented [supposed] to work that way" happen very easily. This of course might be an intended side effect of the lack of documentation (ie, only real hackers that invest time learning can hack on Apache), but the presence of those outdated doc versions leads me to believe it isn't so. The existence of your book, while very welcome, doesn't solve the problem. Of course if no one wants to do it, we'll have to do with what we've got, but saying that it's not a problem doesn't seem wise to me. Sadly, I can't resist doing a lousy analogy (based on non true events): 'Real sysadmins use the best documentation available, the comments in httpd.conf. For higher-level documentation, buy the "Apache Cookbook"'. V.
