[JDEV] Jabber/C contributing issues, was: MIU

[Andrew Sayers]

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On Thu, Sep 04, 2003 at 12:42:29 +0200, maqi at jabberstudio.org wrote:
> > I don't see how standardising the documentation format is relevant here.
> 
> I'm talking of code documentation, not user documentation. Just like
> JavaDoc, Doxygen can provide a simple and handy code documentation once it
> is set up and the code is commented accordingly. You know Doxygen or
> JavaDoc?
> 

I've just taken a look at Doxygen, and I'm not interested.  You still
need to spend an inordinate amount of time documenting your code, even
if you're going to throw it away in two weeks time - it's just that now
the time spent documenting is interspersed with time spent coding.  If
you like working that way, doxygen seems like a better solution than
spending a day writing documentation now and then, but personally I
couldn't work that way.

Even if you could find a way to make documentation hassle-free, that's not
the main point.  Explaining what a function does in plain English is a
hard problem which can't be automated, and it takes time and skill to
come up with good definitions.  Normal human laziness is bound to take
over at some point.

> > On the other hand, implementing per-user settings really is hard without
> > pubsub
> 
> As a quick hack, one could configure the transports simply by messaging
> the transport contact (no pubsub required but of course this can also be
> implemented).

Hence 'hard', not 'impossible'.  This way, you need to spam all of your users
on a regular basis explaining how all of these functions work, find some
way of detecting non-English speakers, and so on.

>               And you know what?- JGF supports that. No C or C++ transport
> does. Strange, isn't it? ;-)

Meow!  If we're sinking to this level, I could just as easily say that
C programmers would rather leave this out entirely (putting pressure on
pubsub JEP authors, where it should be) than force a kludge upon
unsuspecting users, and run the risk of it becoming an accepted
standard.

The bottom line is that you've made one set of choices in your
development work, and other people have made other choices.  Jabber
developers aren't stupid, so their choices will generally be thoughtful.
Don't be so quick to assume that everyone that does things a different
way must be doing it a worse way.

	- Andrew
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