Subject: Re: wu-ftpd documentation complaints

From: Serge Bezzubov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 22:19:40 +0400

> > I think developers of the wu-ftpd should pay more attention to its
> > documentation. I'm sure that the most questions about ftpd configuration
> > are caused by impossibility to find a comprehensive answer in the manual. 
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Forgive me, but I have to jump in and defend some people here.  The author
> of the original wu-ftpd (2.4), Bryan O'Connor, is no longer working
> on/supporting wu-ftpd, nor has he been for at least a year or so.  The
> whole project was done on a grant, and while I'm sure he put considerable 
> time and effort into the documentation, his main priority was the coding 
> of the daemon itself.  And since he's not around to fix anything with 
> wu-ftpd (be it doc-related or otherwise), it's not quite fair to say that 
> he should pay more attention to documentation.

You understood me wrong. I meant developers who is currently working on
wu-ftpd.

> The folks at Academ who are currently working on new revisions of wu-ftpd 
> aren't exactly to blame either; they keep the code up-to-date with the 
> latest features/bug-fixes, but they're hardly responsible for any lack of 
> documentation.  Stan and the other folks working on the code have done a 
> good job so far of updating the relevant documentation files anytime a 
> major change is made.
> 
> Your claims about lack of documentation are valid; but then, that's why 
> we have things like FAQs and mailing lists.  Granted, a good set of 
> documentation should answer almost all of your questions; but there is 
> simply no such thing as a perfect manual.  To place the blame on the 
> coders for not answering every feasible question beforehand is a bit unfair.
> 
I didn't and don't blame anyone who is responsible for developing wu-ftpd.
On the contrary, I express my respect to them. I just meant that a lot of
the same questions were, are and will be asked always unless they will
be properly covered once in manual. I also hoped that someone who is
experienced enough on getting wu-ftpd to work fine will take responsibility
to make the wu-ftpd manual more convenient and detailed. Is it bad idea?
I thought that mailing lists exist not only to answer quiestions, but to
make things better. Why couldn't we enhence wu-ftpd manual all together?

Please, forgive my poor English.
Serge
my message