Re: [xml] Bug or User Error

[Daniel Veillard <veillard redhat com>]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2004 at 12:28:50AM -0800, Christopher J. Grayce wrote:
> With all due respect, Daniel, I kind of agree with some of this.  I've
> been using libxml2 for quite a while, and I've done my best to study
> the documentation, the tutorials, the mailing list archive, and I've
> pored over the source code myself, walked through it with the debugger
> step by step, et cetera, and I *still* get snagged by features or
> "features" which, no doubt, are clear to you when you built them,
> but which catch me by surprise.  
>
> I'm not a fool, either.  I've been writing large production scientific
> code for 18 years, all on Multics/Unix/Linux systems and generally with
> open software and GNU tools.  
>
> Unfortunately, the documentation for libxml2 is just not especially
> well-organized and decidedly incomplete.  I'm not complaining about
> that -- you've done great work on the library itself, it *is* an
> open-source project, and anyone who doesn't like it is free to do a
> better job.
>
> But -- it's a little often the case that you yell at people for being
> dumbheads and not reading the docs, etc. -- a little too often, IMHO.
> You don't have to be an especial dumbhead to be puzzled or surprised
> by libxml2, for reasons above.  It may be that the people who are writing
> to the list are not quite as dumb or lazy as you may be assuming.  And 
> in any event, we all ask dumbass newbie questions from time to time.  It's
> not unreasonable to hope that, therefore, when it's our turn to be the
> expert, we're a little patient with those just get starting.
>
> I'm not trying to be a jerk or unappreciative of all you've done, and
> I know very well what it's like to be frustrated in the way you are.
> Just some feedback, is all, perhaps food for thought.

  So tell me. What should I do ? 
  - Quit my job, loose my earnings and try to fullfill all the request
    to the lists 24 hours a day ? 
  - Quit my job, loose my earnings and try to write a book about libxml2
    which anyway won't give me enough revenues to even feed me.
  - Just ignore requests ?
  - anything else constructive ?

If I get really annoyed, it is because I care about this. Otherwise I would
just ignore posts, right ?

Daniel

-- 
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veillard redhat com  | libxml GNOME XML XSLT toolkit  http://xmlsoft.org/
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