You do understand that a lot of open-source software, including LyX, is developed by *volunteers*, do you?
On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:33 PM, Ken Springer <[email protected]> wrote: > On 10/22/13 10:19 PM, Richard Talley wrote: > >> I originally picked up on LyX because I needed to produce some technical >> manuals quickly that looked good to management and that didn't make me >> deal with the WYSIWYG nightmares of Word and its ilk. >> >> LyX really came through for me. >> >> Now I'm helping a friend apply to graduate school. I used the >> KOMA-script v. 2 letter class to typeset his letter of intent. Looks good! >> >> Now on to the résumé. Let's see what's available. ModernCV looks good, >> under development for seven years. >> >> Except it won't accept last names much longer than the author's name >> without hyphenation. Searching produces lot's of hacks to deal with this. >> >> Run the example that comes with LyX. Note in example says, 'The moderncv >> class offers lots of customization possibilities; some are explained in >> the preamble of this document; for more information look at the >> documentation of the LaTeX-package moderncv.' >> >> Yeah, right. The README for moderncv is very short and includes this: >> 'Until a decent manual is written, you can always look in the "examples" >> directory for some examples. Documents can be compiled into dvi, ps or >> pdf.' >> >> The example LyX file points to documentation that doesn't actually >> exist. There is no 'more information'. Nothing is explained. Seven years >> of development and there's nothing that Aunt Tillie can use. >> >> I know what I'm going to hear, 'Do it yourself', 'That's how open source >> works'. I agree. Perhaps I'll find the time to work on the >> documentation. In the meantime, I need to produce a document NOW, not >> work on the documentation for the tool to produce the document. >> >> Lesson: Please don't point to ghost documentation. If you have the time >> to produce something that you expect people to use, you need to make the >> time to explain how to use it. >> >> (Disclaimer: this doesn't apply to LyX itself, which is richly >> documented. Just to accessories to LyX and to open source generally.) >> >> -- Rich >> > > To all, what I'm about to write doesn't specifically to LyX, but as in > Rich's disclaimer, it applies to the open source community in general. > > I totally understand Rich's frustrations, although he clearly states his > comments about the ModernCV site do not apply to LyX. > > > When I bought this Mac, it was more than I should have spent. I got into > the open source programs, and encouraged others to do so. > > I no longer encourage others to use it. Myself, I'm slowly moving back to > commercial software. A fair question is, why? > > There's no universal answer to the question. I'll just do some quick > comments, and leave it at that. > > 1. Web pages make claims as to the abilities to do a job. But the > software is buggy, or some features just don't work. > > 2. Some pages ask you to become involved, and file bugs. You do, and I > did. But, after a year and a half, the bugs are not even assigned to > anyone, much less fixed. One bug was assigned for awhile, but the > assignment has been removed. Both are classed as minor. Well... They > aren't minor to me!! If the developers don't/won't fix it, then: > > a. Why would I use the program? > b. Why would I recommend the program? > > The program I filed the bugs with is one that wishes to take on a > commercial program in the marketplace. And they add new features, some of > which are inevitable buggy. But the attitude exhibited by not fixing > existing bugs is very unprofessional. If you are a business, with > competition, you want tools that work, not tools you spend a lot of time > finding work arounds. > > 3. When the new version comes out, and the developers have broken > something, they say it's a "regression". Oh, BS!! That's just political > spin for not saying they screwed up and didn't catch it. I would > appreciate the pure honesty of admitting a mistake than political spin. > > 4. My impression is, for most open source software I've tried over a > period of time, the quality assurance/testing program to look for and find > bugs is seriously flawed. Some bugs are blatant, and I ask myself, "How > did they miss that?" > > > > So, the open source community, as a whole, has lost a supporter. And they > have a long, long way to go if they want me to recommend them. > > That being said, I've started a small writing project, for fun for now. > Part of the writing will be done in a commercial program. I will give LyX > a try, 2.06 is installed, but haven't had time to start using it. > > > -- > Ken > > Mac OS X 10.8.5 > Firefox 24.0 > Thunderbird 17.0.8 > LibreOffice 4.1.1.2 > > -- Ernesto Posse Modelling and Analysis in Software Engineering School of Computing Queen's University - Kingston, Ontario, Canada
