[boost] Re: Re: Changes with new release

From: Edward Diener (eddielee_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-07-20 16:39:05

Gennaro Prota wrote:
> --- Edward Diener <eddielee_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> Is it really so hard for a library implementor, who has made changes
>> in how his library works between releases, to write a paragraph or a
>> page explaining the change(s) in functionality so that others can
>> see where the library is going and what new or different usage it
>> entails ?
>
> Not hard, no, but it certainly takes more time than it might appear.
> FWIW, I've started such a section for dynamic_bitset. The doc file,
> for now, is in the boost sandbox, subfolder /libs/dynamic_bitset.

I am glad to see you doing that. I still don't understand all the pain that
many others seem to feel in documenting what they are doing.

>
>> If I were a
>> library implementor, whether Boost or otherwise, I would want to
>> explain my ideas to the outside world as a way of promoting good
>> technology.
>
> Ahehm... :-)

An extra 'h' maybe <g>. Or is it just extra phlegm that got stuck in your
throat when you typed it <g><g>.

Actually I am quite serious with my preceding paragraph. I have never quite
understand why so many good, and often brilliant programmers, take it so
hard when others suggest that they document what they do in easily
understandable sentences. There must be something wrong in the educational
systems of the countries from which most programmers come when they can not,
or do not, want to write clearly. Yet many of the Boost implementors do
write well when they attempt to do so.