“I don’t know how this works. I guess I’ll have to be the one to explain it.”
Nope, it should read: “I don’t understand how it works. It probably means I should (make the effort to) learn how to use it, and then I may want to share what I learned to make it easier to others.” And then, yeah, you’re right:
Okay, how much effort should an end user be expected to put into learning how to use software? The standard used to be RTFM. Oh us Linux users get bitched at when we tell people to RTFM.
Well I Read The Fucking Manual. The macro scripting API isn’t anywhere in The Fucking Manual. You ask how you’re supposed to learn how to use a feature that isn’t in The Fucking Manual, and you get asked why you haven’t Written The Fucking Manual.
You’re told “The Python console has a help feature. Type help() to enter the help mode.” Yeah, that’s a standard feature, here’s the thing: It’s broken in FreeCAD. If you type anything at the help prompt, it exits the help system. You can’t get a list of modules to browse it that way. So you have to know the name of the module that the function you’re looking for is in. Somehow.
I think it’s somewhere around this point that the end user has done what tehy reasonably should have and the ball is in the developer’s court. There is a difference between “Hey it would be great if you guys could help us flesh out the tutorial section on our website a bit!” and “We outright refuse to document our scripting API in any way, if the busted automated help system isn’t good enough, you write it.”
I’m not Writing Their Fucking Manual for them. That is utterly insane.
Okay, how much effort should an end user be expected to put into learning how to use software?
As much as they’re need to, as much as they’re willing to.
If you need to use the software, then also you need to learn how to (properly) use it. If it’s too much work because of the poor doc or because it’s just something hard to use for you (which could very well be, I don’t know but I do know I’ve failed myself to learn to use Emacs save that I don’t blame the devs or the docs that’s provided for free), then you need to either:
Spend some more time (to learn it better).
Spend some money to have someone make some digest version of a too technical doc that will help you. I decided not to do that with Emacs because I realized I could also not use the software and still be able to do my work fine.
Find another app that will suit your needs better and time/energy availability.
FLOSS is provided as is. The user is free to use it however they fancy (which is amazing) but as a user we’re entitled to no support either. And why would we?
I’m not Writing Their Fucking Manual for them. That is utterly insane.
No one is asking you to write the doc if you don’t feel like it, and that’s 100% fine: no one will ever blame you for not writing it either. I’m just telling you that if you think it’s too much work for you you should not expect anyone to do it for you either. End of the story.
But let me ask you this: would writing the manual really be that much more insane than, say, writing the hundreds of thousans of lines of code to make the application itself? And if you think it would be more work to write the doc than to create the app (and offer it for free) may I ask you why? It’s a real question, as I hope you realize I’m not trolling I’m just curious to understand your reasoning.
BTW, I’m no dev, I’m a mere (and non expert) user of FLOSS myself. So, I know quite well how frustrating docs can be ;)
Nope, it should read: “I don’t understand how it works. It probably means I should (make the effort to) learn how to use it, and then I may want to share what I learned to make it easier to others.” And then, yeah, you’re right:
Okay, how much effort should an end user be expected to put into learning how to use software? The standard used to be RTFM. Oh us Linux users get bitched at when we tell people to RTFM.
Well I Read The Fucking Manual. The macro scripting API isn’t anywhere in The Fucking Manual. You ask how you’re supposed to learn how to use a feature that isn’t in The Fucking Manual, and you get asked why you haven’t Written The Fucking Manual.
You’re told “The Python console has a help feature. Type help() to enter the help mode.” Yeah, that’s a standard feature, here’s the thing: It’s broken in FreeCAD. If you type anything at the help prompt, it exits the help system. You can’t get a list of modules to browse it that way. So you have to know the name of the module that the function you’re looking for is in. Somehow.
I think it’s somewhere around this point that the end user has done what tehy reasonably should have and the ball is in the developer’s court. There is a difference between “Hey it would be great if you guys could help us flesh out the tutorial section on our website a bit!” and “We outright refuse to document our scripting API in any way, if the busted automated help system isn’t good enough, you write it.”
I’m not Writing Their Fucking Manual for them. That is utterly insane.
As much as they’re need to, as much as they’re willing to.
If you need to use the software, then also you need to learn how to (properly) use it. If it’s too much work because of the poor doc or because it’s just something hard to use for you (which could very well be, I don’t know but I do know I’ve failed myself to learn to use Emacs save that I don’t blame the devs or the docs that’s provided for free), then you need to either:
FLOSS is provided as is. The user is free to use it however they fancy (which is amazing) but as a user we’re entitled to no support either. And why would we?
No one is asking you to write the doc if you don’t feel like it, and that’s 100% fine: no one will ever blame you for not writing it either. I’m just telling you that if you think it’s too much work for you you should not expect anyone to do it for you either. End of the story.
But let me ask you this: would writing the manual really be that much more insane than, say, writing the hundreds of thousans of lines of code to make the application itself? And if you think it would be more work to write the doc than to create the app (and offer it for free) may I ask you why? It’s a real question, as I hope you realize I’m not trolling I’m just curious to understand your reasoning.
BTW, I’m no dev, I’m a mere (and non expert) user of FLOSS myself. So, I know quite well how frustrating docs can be ;)