Hello all,
Feel free to disagree with this if you like, but I find it odd that some of the most integral programs are really lacking in the documentation department. For example, recently I have been learning about udevd, and the documentation is so basic to say that it's a pretty integral component of some Linux distro's. Compare it with the documentation for something like Apache2, postfix or bash and it's pretty lacking.
Now I'm not complaining because all of this stuff is literally free in every sense of the word, but what I don't understand is why developer(s) would put so much time and effort into writing a sophisticated piece of software, only to not tell anyone else how to use it properly. Surely it's largely pointless at that point? Hypothetically one could write the most powerful and sophisticated program on earth, but if you didn't document how to interact with it for others then it's useless.
I have heard before that the documentation for proprietary/commercial software is way beyond what a lot of FOSS projects can offer, which would be understandable. I'd like to hear what others think and have experienced...
Bookmarks