Nate Abele wrote:
Ah, so you're a support puke, not an actual programmer. Yeah, that
explains a thing or two.
Anyway, in an effort to cut this discussion short, I'm going to simply
suggest that you don't use Cake. Not now, or at any point in the
future. I, as a core dev of the project, am telling you that no good
can come of it. And this way, if you continue to spout your unasked
for, poorly reasoned, and grammatically incorrect opinions, the only
reasonable conclusion one could reach is that you're a troll with a
learning disability.
Have a nice day :-)
- Nate
One this this end user for sure DOES NOT do is waste my valuable time on
convoluted nonsense like this explanation has provided. With over twenty
five years of experience in and around Quality Assurance and Customer
Support I can categorically state that this is YET ANOTHER case of an
software engineer who has not or can not put himself in the end user
position to experience the real world and does not use or test the
product that he creates as an end user.
Ahh, now it gets interesting when customer-oriented supporters and for
my own sake only arrogant developers go at each other. I am both a
developer and spent quite some time in support. Any piece of software is
supposed to be clearly documented in detail in the form of meaningful
source code commentary (and that means one for about every two lines of
code, not just some gibberish at the top) and properly maintained
technical end-user documentation that enables anyone who is not an
expert developer or god to make use of the software. It is absolutely
irrelevant if the software is open -source and free to use or
proprietary with a million dollar price tag. And no, source code is not
documentation!
I am in no way implying that volunteer open-source developer have the
same time, skill, and resources available to prepare proper
documentation. Nevertheless, developers need to know that there is a
need and a purpose for proper documentation as well as get one thing
straight right from the start: if the software is supposed to be used by
a (paying) community the software is to be developed for that community
and not for the enjoyment of the developer (enjoyment being having fun
programming or just getting the paycheck each month). Documentation is
as important as the code itself, especially when others are asked to
contribute and join in the project. It is also necessary to crank the
developer arrogance switch to 0 and come to terms with the fact that
error messages have a purpose and that is guiding the end-user towards a
solution of the detected problem. Errors such as "database configuration
file missing" are IMHO plain garbage. Knowing from my own development
projects creating proper error handling is boring, annoying, time
consuming, and adds nothing towards the overall functionality.
Reading the posts from both sides I must say that each has some truth to
it. The supporter who has some development experience is for sure the
better supporter. But nothing straightens out a developer more than a
bitching customer.
That said, flame on...it's funny. ;)
David
_______________________________________________
New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List
http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
http://www.nyphpcon.com
Show Your Participation in New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
