[antlr-interest] [v3] Lack of documentation

[Kay Roepke]

First of all:

Amazing what can happen to your inbox when you're gone one measly  
weekend...

I think it's time to relax a bit guys. Turn off that computer and get  
the hell outside. Like fresh air, like.

On Jul 2, 2007, at 8:08 PM, David Piepgrass wrote:

> Yet there are other projects, large open source projects, that not
> only give away the product and the source code but also the
> documentation. For example, the SharpDevelop folks give away their
> book on SharpDevelop. Unfortunately it's poorly edited and has lots of
> errors, but er... if we can overlook that, I hope you can see my
> point.

To me it looks like this is the point: "...other projects, large open  
source projects...".
The ANTLR Project is not large. There may be a lot of users, but if  
you look at how many people are actually working on it,
you'll notice that it's essentially Ter, plus a handful target  
developers and also of course a handful of very helpful bug
reporters (=users). Of course sometimes Ter hijacks us to run ideas  
against our (unsuspecting) brains ;)

We all have our reasons to be involved and of course have a varying  
amount of time at our hands. That's ok and to be expected
in open source projects. Nothing to get all worked up over.

Nevertheless, IMHO buying a book has absolutely nothing to do with a  
project being a good open source project. I know a lot
of projects where you really, really, *really* want a book even  
though there is documentation available (e.g. Lucene).
If you are really serious about a tool and have the source, for me  
the natural thing to do is to take a look at the source to
understand what I'm doing. This might differ for people but then  
again, there is a helpful (I think) mailing list to ask
questions. I personally have provided ongoing help for a couple of  
people over time and sometimes that's more helpful than
any docs (again IHMO).
On the flipside, a book also increases the visibility of the tool (to  
name just one legitimate reason in its favor).

I'm not going to go into the flame-war, but still needed the above to  
get off my chest. My opinion, no to be taken in favor
or against any single person.

cheers,
-k

P.S.: Don't forget the relaxation part. It works! ;)

-- 
Kay Röpke
http://classdump.org/