[Zope] Giving up in frustration

[Paul Everitt]

Patrick wrote:
> Hadar wrote:
> > I am very sorry to see you go. We all understand and feel
> > for your frustration. We hate to lose even a single person
> > because of a stupid reason like this, but alas, it is a
> > chicken and egg problem. We are building a large and complex 
> > system, all at our own risk. We give it away, and support
> > the hell out of it, and yes, documentation lags (sometimes
> > too much).
> 
> Hadar,
> 
> I'm afraid I simply can't *afford* to sympathize with your 
> last sentence
> and frankly I'm becoming very weary of seeing that sentiment 
> put forth.

Understood.

> As much as I may disagree with some of the ideas espoused  by Richard
> Stallman, I wholeheartedly agree with his notion that application
> software lacking properly prepared documentation shouldn't be released
> until that defect has been fixed. Period.

Certainly this is the ideal to which all projects aspire.  Some get
there, some don't.  For instance, GNOME, the latest GNU darling, went
out the door with docs probably below the standard we're at.  Like us,
though, the GNOME folks had to balance a whole host of influences.

> I doubt that the documentation writer DC has hired will ever catch up
> in the current climate. I doubt that DC will ever achieve its goals
> until that problem is addressed. If I were running DC, I'd declare the
> following policy, effective immediately:
> 
> """The current feature freeze on 2.0 will now be supplemented by a
> development freeze. All developers, salespeople, in fact anyone with a
> brain and a pair of eyes and hands, will reassign themselves to
> supporting the documentation effort until that effort has come abreast
> of the current and near-term development. Henceforth, we will *not*
> release until documentation is in hand."""  

Since I'm the guy running DC, I'll chime in by saying that our goal
after 2.0 is to slow way down and harden what's already there.  We _all_
know that we have plenty of powerful ideas, and that we certainly don't
need boatloads of new code to stay ahead.  What is needed the most is
better explanation of what is already there.

We'll never go to the extreme that you've articulated, as Zope is always
moving forward based on consulting engagements, and those won't be held
up while documentation for the general case is concluded.  But it is
most certainly our goal to move to a model where the pure Zope work
starts with documentation and isn't released until the documentation is
released.  The closer we get to that goal the better.

Just my $0.02.

--Paul

Paul Everitt       Digital Creations
paul@digicool.com  540.371.6909
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