[mythtv-users] MythFrontend 0.21: What is a watch list?

Andrew Close aclose at gmail.com
Wed Mar 12 13:55:24 UTC 2008


On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 9:15 PM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:

<snip/>

>  My point is that if dev spent 1/3 their time writing doc instead of
>  coding and fixing bugs, we'd have only 2/3 of a complete system. Tons
>  of people complained that 0.21 took so long to release. Imagine if
>  they had to wait for dev to catch up on doc as well.
>
>  Also, OpenSource is the only type of software development process I've
>  ever seen where developers were expected to provide end-user
>  documentation. The software companies I've worked for would fire any
>  developer who tried to give doc to end users without going through a
>  tech writer.
>
>  Please don't point out where I'm clearly wrong and that other
>  companies have dev write doc. I'm speaking from my personal experience
>  of the admittedly short 8 years working for software companies.

Brad, you are clearly wrong*.
i've never worked on a project that had dedicated tech writers, and i
have worked at some big companies on fairly large projects.
documentation has always been in the domain of the developers and is
almost always a /required/ part of the development process.  however,
more often than not, timelines are immovable and something has to give
so documentation goes out the window. :)  actually, at my current
/job/, timelines are set before business requirements are drafted.
development is typically done before the conceptual design is
reviewed, technical design docs are an after thought if they are even
thought of.  and while we do have a very good and competent QA staff,
QA always suffers due to the time restrictions set by sales people and
upper management that don't have a clue about what it takes to develop
software or add new features to an already extremely cobbled together
system.
ok, this was supposed to be an over exaggerated, super sarcastic
response and now it's looking more like a rant.  so much for being
funny...

*and by 'wrong', i mean completely on the mark ;)

-- 
Andrew Close


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list