TimeWaster’s Place

Foreword: I write this article especially with two projects in mind: “Eventscripts” and “Truecrypt”. Come and get me.

The species called “Programmer” seem to be a bit thin-skinned when it comes to issues only “related” to their work.

The first thing is documentation:
Eventscripts is the best example for a lack of documentation. Eventscripts is a scripting engine which enables one to write gaming server related scripts for CS:S for instance. Eventscripts uses python for the underlying scripting engine, but adds a vast amount of increments to it regarding the game events and so on.
There is a wiki containing documentation, but it is by no means complete. many commands are missing, others are incomplete, others are simply wrong. IT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS to write a script with this bad documentation.
I started a conversation regarding this issue with the Eventscripts creators, and it degenerated fast into a conflict, arguing about whose job it is to do documentation.
Since the wiki is writable for everyone, the creators have the opinion that the users have to write the documentation.
But how i ask, how can a user write documentation without knowing what a command can do? or even not knowing that some commands exist?
IMHO it is always the job of the programmers to document their work! I also write code i publish (mostly unter GPL), but i would never even think of publishing it without a complete documentation!

The second thing is behaviour that is not caused by the program but by the operating system:
I assume you all know Truecrypt: When one creates a large container file in Truecrypt, he will most probably leave the creation process running over night, since it takes several hours to create.
The problem is: after creating and formatting the container, the operating system needs to do a task which requires system privileges. The system asks the user to give it to this process, but since no one is on the keyboard, it runs into a timeout and tells Truecrypt that the format was unsuccessful. Truecrypt then tells the user that it could not format the container AND DELETES the nevertheless successful created container.
The argument in the forum why this bug isn’t fixed is that it is a issue with the operating system, therefore it’s not the Truecrypt programmers fault. They easily could fix it by requesting the admin privileges for the process on the beginning of the formatting.

So, what is it with programmers to accept their own babies to be incomplete or faulty by simply stating that’s not their fault? I could never do that! It would break the rule of delivering a complete and usable product!

So to all the programmers out there: Stop whining and start writing cool, complete and usable software!!!