Hello, On Sun, July 2, 2006 9:15 pm, Terry Jones wrote: > Here's a summary of thoughts I've had over the last month or so.
As one totally smitten with Twisted but compelled to abandon it due to lack of documentation, I heartily second Terry Jones's critique and proposal. I tried to contribute my small bit toward better Twisted documentation with the Techno Turkey Adventures series... even created a Techno Turkey blog. My assumption was that by starting from a know-nothing stance and asking embarrassingly naive questions I could tease out enough technical direction to build enlightening and useful code experiments designed to accelerate progress up the Twisted learning curve. But several things brought the endeavor to a premature end: 1) My own limited Python skills meant that I couldn't, on my own hook, dig much meaning out of the source code. There are a number of Python (or, perhaps, object) idioms used extenstively in the Twisted corpus that totally baffle me. 2) I never could get a grasp of the big picture -- how all the parts fit together -- or don't. Starting from the Twisted root, the corpus seems to branch out prolifically -- some branches fairly complete and useful, some under active development, and some abandoned. I just couldn't tell which was which. 3) Several people from the Twisted community generously offered guidance and support. Of those, all but one knew little more than I did. These stalworthy folks helped enormously with testing and identification of various copy and code errors, but couldn't lead me toward forward progress. The one person who knew his way through the thicket the way was more than generous with his suggestions, but too time-constrained to give much in the way of big picture. By and large, I had the feeling that the core Twisted developers were moving so fast exploiting Twisted and progeny commercially, that they had little time for documentation or bringing others along behind them. No complaint here; just stating a perception. 4) My own time constraints imposed severe limits on the time I could commit to the projectd. As a result, I just couldn't learn enough fast enough to meet a deadline I had for a web project of my own. The result, I turned to another Python web framework and was able to make significant progress within days -- not because the framework (Karrigell) was better documented, but because it so was far less ambitious -- simple-minded even -- that even a turkey like me could understand it. I would like to return to Twisted. Indeed I would like to pick up the Turkey series again if it is deemed helpful to the community. But to do so I would need one or more talented technical mentors to keep me on a productive path. If not Turkey, then I'm still willing to provide all the help I can, given my limited technical perspective, toward better Twisted documentation. But, again, as a follower, not a leader. Cheers, Terry. I'm pulling for your success. Best wishes, Lloyd R. Prentice _______________________________________________ Twisted-web mailing list [email protected] http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-web
