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Howard Chu @ Symas

@mhoye @jrconlin people write open source code because they saw a need and decided to address it. The fact that tech writers haven't also seen a similar need and stepped up to address it isn't the open source devs' fault. Demanding that someone who gave you a gift give it to you in a particular shape, size, and color is just being greedy.

8 comments
Howard Chu @ Symas replied to Howard Chu @ Symas

@mhoye @jrconlin to accuse me personally of not wanting to write docs is baseless. My LMDB project is thoroughly documented. Not only are the docs complete and easily accessible lmdb.tech/doc they're written in Doxygen, embedded in the source code and header files and always kept up to date with code changes.

jr conlin replied to Howard Chu @ Symas

@hyc @mhoye

I feel like we're closing the circle here.
You wrote documents, possibly good ones, possibly not. I don't know if you had anyone edit them or if you thought about the audience. Maybe you did, maybe there are guides out there that people read instead and you don't know or care.

I know that I am not a good enough writer or editor to presume that my docs are perfect. I also don't presume my audience is lazy or stupid.
It's communication.
It's hard.
We can do better.

Howard Chu @ Symas replied to jr

@jrconlin @mhoye The original audience for LMDB was developers who already used BerkeleyDB. Particularly relevant to this conversation, the Getting Started guide, for people unfamiliar with either LMDB or BDB, was written by a user and contributed to the project.

Howard Chu @ Symas replied to mhoye

@mhoye @jrconlin it's working at this moment. It was timing out for me too, right after I posted.

also note

mastodon.social/@hyc/111178941

Colby Russell replied to Howard Chu @ Symas

@hyc it reads like the basis of the disagreement here is not even your opinion/position, but your (incredibly frustrating) attempts to move the goalposts.

If your immediate reaction to someone trying to call attention about how much something sucks had just involved you saying, "Yeah, that does suck. It's just that no one has put the time in to making it not suck yet," instead of what you actually did—engage in dithering apologetics—then you and @mhoye wouldn't be having this conversation.

Colby Russell replied to Colby

@hyc the goalpost moving comes across as worse than disinterest in fixing the problem. It's flak that has to be dodged by anyone on the path towards trying to get the problem fixed.

Nobody in open source owes anyone else perfect jewels. But if lack of time/energy to put together a proper fix is at the root of the problem, questions remain about all the time and energy put into denying the problem existed and fervently arguing that everyone is just "illiterate and stupid".

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