-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Monday, 2009-12-07 at 17:16 +0100, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
A man page describes a function you already knows its name. It is no use when trying to find a function to do something you need. And it doesn't explain the process.
If I'm looking for a library function for a particular purpose, but I don't know if someone's already written it, I go and google that purpose. If I had a fairly good idea, I would try 'man -k', or 'find /usr/include -follow -type f | xargs grep -i <whatever>'. The other day I was working on a project wrt DKIM - the only code/implementation I had seen was perl-based, but with a bit of research, I discovered libdkim (pretty obvious name) as part of the sendmail package. In order use it, dkim.h is the first place to look, then perhaps some of the test programs.
Yes, but that's because you already have a rough idea of what you are looking for, you can make an educated guess. I can't.
No, you don't need that kind of documentation, because you already know. To me, it is daunting.
Which is an issue that can't be solved by documentation, because how would you know which document or book to read when you don't know which library you want to use.
No, because on an organized documentation the first thing is a description of what each library does. More than one line per lib, obviously ;-)
If anyone wants to encourage new devs to come to linux, and not only young students out of school or university, such texts must be finished and provided.
Linux does not have a problem attracting new developers; I'm not convinced the lack of such texts is a real problem.
I'm sure they come, but newly trained. Not many coming from outside. IMHO.
I take it you mean 'outside' to mean "not directly from a university or similar"? As far as I can see, the opportunities for a programmer or engineer coming from an otherwise unrelated field and starting to write some code for Linux are far greater than for any other platform. If people don't take that opportunity, it's not due to lack of documentation or information.
No, I mean from outside linux developing. A chap coming directly from university or college or school now, a young chap, has a strong chance of having trained in developing in/for linux. Me, I met linux long after I left school, and after I stopped programming professionally. I know little of linux programming, and I'm little inclined to investigate for months and train myself. Yes, if I wanted to get into linux programming, lack of proper documentation (formal) is an issue. I know. I have done some small programs for linux :-) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAksdqYMACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VU8QCbBUjWtV8UDAF0GWByXp5dwJOC PmAAn3NfD8U9oxo0S2FA/I4s2lTRXAWW =HL5s -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-factory+help@opensuse.org