On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:41:21 -0400, "Michael P. Soulier" <msoulier_AT_digitaltorque.ca> wrote:
> On 28/10/11 Pieter Praet said:
>
> > When acquiring *any* type of technology (in the very broad sense of the
> > word), you should either make an effort to educate yourself regarding
> > available options, usage and maintenance, or reimburse someone to do it
> > all for you.
> >
> > If you refuse to do either of those, you lose every right to complain,
> > because most (if not all) problems you encounter will be the product of
> > your own intentional ignorance.
>
> I'll say one thing regarding this, as I mostly agree. When it comes to
> open source software, I do find the accompanying documentation often rather
> lacking, especially in decent examples. And "use the source" doesn't cut it.
> My time is not infinite.
>
> I often find that the first contribution that I can make to an open source
> project is in documentation, because the authors are so often unwilling to do
> it, or can't author decent docs to save their lives.
>
True.
This is part of educating yourself re available options (by which I mean
implementations). It's *always* a matter of cost-effectiveness analysis.
And I absolutely agree that for most FOSS projects, grokking the source
is rather unlikely to have a positive ROI re time and effort, so
additional motives (knowledge, fun, security, the ability to contribute)
are required to make it worth your while.
> Without documentation I don't blame anyone if they move on to software that
> has it.
>
No sensible person would.
> Cheers,
> Mike
Peace
--
Pieter
Received on Fri Oct 28 2011 - 18:06:02 CEST