On Fri, 2002-02-01 at 08:33, Earl R Shannon wrote: > Hello, > > You have found what may be the biggest problems with free software. > Documentation and Support. Sysadmins such as myself must take these > issues into account when deciding upon a platform to use for delivery > of services such as email. Using a package such as Cyrus requires a > somewhat higher level of knowledge. Quite frankly, if I were to > believe the test programs included with cyrus my setup would not > be working ( but it is ). > > Documentation is sadly the last thing that gets done. We here constantly > bemoan that fact about our own internal projects, but the problem > remains. Once a working service is in place writing down what you did > to get it working gets pre-empted by trying to get something else > working. > And the obvious, if sometimes painful, solution to that is to require the documentation up-front. I found out an awful long time ago that writing the documentation up front had distinct advantages. The software product winds up more well thought out and is ultimately a better product. It's funny, but until you can state in coherent english what the "thing" is going to do and how it's going to work it's much harder to code. Then when it's time to code you make the program match the documentation. If you discover that the code need to diverge from what you've documented you need to correct the docs before continuing the code development.
I require it of myself and anyone that writes any software for me. Oh there's plenty of wailing and knashing of teeth the first time some programmer is hit with the documentation requirement, but after a couple of times they've all come back and admitted that it really was easier to write the code when the docs were done first. -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Jim Levie email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dynetics Inc, Huntsville, Al Ph. 256.964.4337 The opinions expressed above are just that...
