From: Tim Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2007-07-16T07:38:46+09:00
Subject: Re: graphing/charting application

Peter Seebach wrote:
> I think many developers underestimate the significance of documentation
> to projects.  Of course, most of us have at least some practice figuring
> things out without documentation, reading source, and so on...
>
> But putting in a few years as a writer leaves me more concerned with
> documentation than I used to be.  I'll say that much.
>   
+1. I did my time, too, helping document a C compiler/linker on a system 
that had never had a C compiler/linker before. Then I worked in a 
publications department for 3 years and got to see the other side, how 
developers (generally) treat writers, which is to say, not well. This 
left me with much more respect for the writer's point-of-view. A 
dedicated and skilled writer can do a lot to make the software successful.

Hobbyist software does not require documentation. Developers are 
certainly free to simply throw it over the wall and say "here, take it 
or leave it." But users are also free to evaluate the software by the 
quality of its documentation.

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