"Brion Vibber" brion@pobox.com wrote in message news:C48D19A6-0BDD-11D8-BCB7-000A95DAA284@pobox.com...
On Friday, Oct 31, 2003, at 06:47 US/Pacific, Poor, Edmund W wrote:
It was as I feared: no requirements documents, nothing about architecture or detailed design. The hardest-working, most universally respected developer(s) kept basically saying "just read the code".
I hate to say it, Ed, but if nobody writes the documentation there isn't going to be any.
Complaining is great and all, and it sounds even better when the complaints are about real problems, but it doesn't get things done in a volunteer project.
If you feel documentation is what this project needs, and you want to help, then *write some*.
The unfortunate thing about writing documentation is that it requires a high level of familiarity with the code. But anyone with familiarity is also highly in demand for the other necessary tasks. So writing documentation is a very expensive task. But judging by the opinions expressed in this thread, it may well be worth spending a significant amount of time on.
In the meantime, it would be nice if new code additions were more heavily commented.
-- Tim Starling.