On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:48:02 +0200 "Geoff McLane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > IMHO, if you can download the 100% of the 'free' SOURCE, > you already have 100% of the 'free' 'documentation'? What > more can you 'want' from the author? > > Only the source can 'perfectly' describe up-to-the-minute > what-is-happening ... And beware, particularly in C++, > it starts long before main() is called, and thus begins > processing the much loved 'command line' given, if any ... > > Oh, 'documentation' can NOT be that dumbed-down-until- > your-boss-can-understand-it wordings we all have to > write sometimes, no matter how 'creative' the > source ... like he can not even run /somepath/prog ?, > which usually yields something, even if you do not > understand the parameters requested ... > > It's the cry of those-that-dont-know to those-who-do-know > to reveal their source some more somehow ... haha! :-)) > ... wish we could ... > />
I'm so glad that's a 'Humble' opinion. It's also just about the most stupid thing I have ever read on a serious mailing list. If the author wants people to USE the program, then she needs to supply USER instructions. Frederic does supply them for FGSD, at the moment they are on a single page of his FGSD website and a whole lot of handholding in the FGSD mailing list. I don't think that's adequate if ordinary folk-who-just-want-better-scenery-especially-far-away-from-the-bay-area-to-fly-FlightGear-in are to use it. My problem with FlightGear, SimGear, TerraGear, and FGSD is that the USER documentation is inadequate, unless you happen to be a C++ programmer - which I'm not. I don't need to be a fully trained metalurgist to use a hammer, I just need the instructions for hammering - this is one of the human genetic differentiators - social specialisation - you make hammers, he makes nails, they cut trees, and I'll make wooden shacks. And if the author of software doesn't want to write documentation, that's her right too, but unless it's trivial I probably can't use it. My programmers were always told: "Your program does not exist until the user documentation exists too". They can demure, and find another job. In the Open Source community we don't fire people, we help them WRITE the documentation, or we find another program which has been adequately documented. This is the first time I'm ever felt so cross that I wanted to flame someone- I just hope I misunderstood him. Richard. _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
