Henning P. Schmiedehausen wrote:

> Is "documentation" one of the 2-3 serious things left to do?

<flamebait>
Documentation is nice but working code is better :-) My experience with
OSS shows that docs lie on the far end of the priority list. The people
who do develop the software are able to use it without the docs, so
basicaly it is of little interest to them. Fixing bugs and adding
features is much more interesting because it directly affects their
ability to use the software. Documentation is an investment. If you do
it, people might step up and help you with your work, add value to the
software, and this way your ability to 'do stuff' with it will improve.
On the other hand, people that are not able to understand the software
without black-on-white documentation rarely get involved into improving
the software, either because they lack necessary skills, or don't have
time for digging into software internals. Developers might even consider
them to be 'freeloaders' -- they want something but they are not able to
give value back. Sometimes the OSS developers are not able to make the
'documentation investment' because they don't have the resources needed:
they are short with time in their real lives and their paid jobs. You
don't buy stock, when you don't have enough money to buy food for
yourself :-)

I know that this post is a little provocational, and I don't really have
any real 'voice' here. I'm not an active developer of this project.
But if I were a developer I would alwas vote for features over
documentation.
</flamebait>

R.



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