Hi! I hope I'm not gonna be completely offtopic, but I wanted to say that it isn't necessary to have 10+ years of X experience to contribute useful code to DRI project. The "Use the source Luke" is ALMOST sufficient (the docs available are not, and often have obsolete information, but I think that doesn't matter that much really), and as for the few (although sometimes crucial) pieces I didn't understand, there were helpful people on mailing lists and irc (e.g. Mike Harris and Michel Dänzer) who provided me with enough information so that I could "get it". I wrote my first contribution to X (tvout support for r128) in like 3 hours (including time spent on IRC) without ANY prior knowledge and any docs from ATI. I haven't had even written a client app for X before.
This isn't to say the situation couldn't be better, only that it is sufficient
for the "worthy" ones :-), and has a healthy base. Having free access to
MODIFYING the code is simply unbeatable, I can't imagine living without it.
I think writing docs should be done by people who get paid for it. I know I
hate writing docs for the stuff I program for free. Or at least it should NOT
be done by developers, but by people specialized in documentation. This isn't
a "developer" issue, but a "development organization" issue.
My advice to wannabe developers: use the source and when you get confused or
stuck, ask in the list or on irc. About how to ask, read a recent essay from
ESR. Decent docs may decrease the time you need to accomplish a task without
prior knowledge, but not really THAT much. A developer should trust the
availabilty of source and not be scared to dig in. It ain't gonna bite you :-)
Bye,
Peter Surda (Shurdeek) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, ICQ 10236103, +436505122023
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