On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Ben Leslie wrote:
>
> > Open source is great but advocating being able to the source when the docs
> > aren't good isn't really a big plus.
>
> How's this:
>
> 1. global peer review is only possible with open source
>
> 2. trusting a third parties documentation is very errant; viz. MS
> has known "hidden" APIs as well a deliberate misinformation about
> semi-public API's to mislead competitors trying to write decent software
> on the 'doze plaforms (see the WINE project for the grueling history
> of their project work as it relates to MS third-party doco)
>
>
> 3. programmers do *not* document properly, correctly or accurately
>
> 4. the only definitive reference to source code is the source code
>
> 5. if you cannot refer to the source code, refer to step (2) above,
> cross your fingers and hope what you are reading is accurate
Hold on a sec! Open source is great for many reasons, being able to read to
source to verify documenation is a good thing, however advocating open source
with "When the docs are wrong you can read the source" comes across as "Open
source docs are so bad you have to read the source, good luck if you don't
know how to program in C". Which of course is bollocks, but that doesn't help
if you are trying to convince someone about the wonders of open source.
Cheers,
Benno-not-intending-to-start-a-flame-war.
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