in reply to Re: CGI::Prototype - SYNOPSIS shows arcane and heterodox inheritance
in thread CGI::Prototype and use base

Is he really carping? He's carping about getting a mailinglist, but other than that I see him mostly taking notes as he learns. To me that seems like contribution in its own right, albeit messy and incoherent in nature.

The tired adage that “it's open source so if you don't like it then do something about it” is a sometimes all too convenient way to deflect complaints. There is no entitlement to good documentation any more than there is to the code itself or any other effort on the author's part, of course, but we need to understand that lack of documentation, no matter how good and clear the code, always severely degrades its quality.

Makeshifts last the longest.

  • Comment on Re^2: CGI::Prototype - SYNOPSIS shows arcane and heterodox inheritance

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Re^3: CGI::Prototype - SYNOPSIS shows arcane and heterodox inheritance
by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Jan 31, 2005 at 15:05 UTC

    I'm not using a tired adage. I see a person who's putting their head in the code, figuring a lot of things out, writing a lot about things, but not doing anything other than carping to change the docs. He has the knowledge and the time to elaborate on the stuff he wants added to the docs, so he has the time to patch the docs. We all know that a lack of documentation is bad, so instead of talking about it, I'd like to see someone offer to fix it. So far I've seen a lot of debate and no patches, and the situation hasn't changed.

    I'm not deflecting complaints: I'm encouraging good citizenship and suggesting the course of action that is better suited to get results. Obviously what he's doing now is not satisfying him.

    --
    brian d foy <bdfoy@cpan.org>