[Asterisk-Dev] 'tonezone' in chan_zap.c

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Michael Giagnocavo wrote:

> >> But on -dev, the rule of the day is that questions *about* the code
> >> are discouraged, even though this product is arguably the
> >> least-well-documented code I have ever tried to plow through.
> >Good. We need more people who *write* code, not people who have
> >question on how to read code. Big difference.
> 
> Yea, one difference is that writing code is lot easier than reading,
> much more easier than understanding, and quite a lot easier than being
> able to debug. Anyone can go in and write code for Asterisk. I think
> that's quite proven. The number of developers who have a full-end-to-end
> understanding of the code, and then *gasp* an understanding of what
> users might expect or need is quite a lot less.
I disagree. At any case, if you can't read code, and you need your hand 
held, you are not likely to be much of a contributor in future.

> >> In my own case, I've been reading code for weeks, trying to figure out 
> >> just how to use (and extend) the Realtime engine.  The Wiki has some 
> >> documentation, but it is cursory, self-contradictory, and in general 
> >> of very limited use.
> >So, why aren't you contributing to Wiki and adding necessary documentation
> >as you figure things out?
> 
> What a swell idea. Dev writes code. Is too lazy, or perhaps doesn't
> understand it enough to document it. Solution? Tell someone else to
> *read his mind* and *guess* what the intention of the code is. Comments
> convey intent. Trying to capture intent after the fact doesn't work that
> well (especially, if there's a bug...).
I don't think you understand why people are contributing to Asterisk. We
are not doing it to help *YOU*. We are not doing it to make the world a
better place. We are writing code to *solve our immediate need* and
are gracious enough to share that code with everyone else, including you.

So, please, stop complaining that developers don't write documentation.
If you don't like it - pay someone for well-documented code.

The worst thing you can do is bitch and moan that 'I cannot understand
this code, it has no documentation blah blah blah'. I [and I think, most
developers on this list] *simply do not care what you think about our
code, whether you use it or not use it*. WE DO NOT CARE. NOT AT ALL.

> > It is free, it works, and you can improve on it. What else can you ask
> >for?
> 
> Was that a joke? That sounded similar to the person who wrote "Open
> source is a gift, how can you impose timelines on a gift", re: getting a
> project manager for Asterisk.
Let's not rehash that again.

> Asterisk enjoys a unique advantage of currently being quite well ahead
> of other similar offerings. But that's not an instrinsic.
Go troll some-other-similar-offering-mailing-list-dev.

-alex