[ic] Frustrated with IC 4.8

[IC-Admin]

On Tue, 18 Sep 2001, Kat Turner wrote:

> 
> >The would be the beginning of the end. It doesn't make sense. It's not the
> >responsibility of the developer to make sure, that the documentation gets
> >understood by everybody  independent of their level of knowledge or
> >expertise.
> >
> >There is no science, where the scientist adapt to the level of
> >understanding of a highschool student, just to make sure everybody
> >can understand quantum physics. If a chemist develops a drug his
> >documentation for that drug will not be watered down to a level
> >a ninth grader can read it like a science fiction novel.
> >
> >Somewhere along the road you can understand, that it's up to you to
> >learn the tools you need. I wouldn't know any field where that wouldn't
> >be the same.
> >
> >Birgitt Funk
> 
> 
> I started this thread out of frustration of trying to understand why a great 
> program with great features had to be so difficult to learn and use. The 
> thought process needed in making your comments would fully explain why IC is 
> the way it is, close to a perfect program for it's intended purpose in 
> operation but harder to learn to use than it should be.
> 
> Most scientists are also teachers in our colleges and universities. They 
> take pride in sharing their knowledge with others. They document each step 
> of what they learn and making it available. If they kept what they knew to 
> themselves and expected others to catch up, as you seem to suggest, we would 
> find ourselves on the cutting edge of medieval technology.
> 

I find that kind of ironic. Open source software is the only software,
which actually takes a lot of pride to share its "knowledge" by making
itself avaible by opening up its source code.  The other alternative
is "closed" software. There NO KNOWLEDGE gets shared whatsoever. 

The documentation for open source software is not worse than most of
the software for closed software. Actually I think, though may be not
all documentation for open source software is in an optimal format,
it is definitely is available in there and a lot of volunteer work has
been put into it. 

A lot of great books have been written about open source
applications to do exactly what you are describing, they make the
knowledge of the developers available to the public and that is
really the opposite from keeping all to themselves. That's one of
the reasons why open source software will be used all over in schools
and by government entities in the future. What is good enough for
schools to use as teaching tool (because the source code is open
and inexpensive), is certainly good enough for me and my personal
use of that software. 

Birgitt Funk