You want to play a fun puzzle game? Go figure out how to get basically anything done with the macro/scripting system. The app exposes a Python console to the user and they didn’t bother to publish an API reference so you’re left resorting to the “dangle a cat from a string and hit it with a stick to see what falls out” method of veterinary school. Why is being open source an accepted excuse to force users to attend Pinata University?
Don’t come to me with a question and ask for the answer. Come to me with the answer that you came up with and ask me why it doesn’t work.
In other words, at least try to be the solution. You’re more likely to get help from those who can help you.
Start writing the documentation. Fill in everything you know. There might be people you help who don’t know as much as you.
Post about it, and give others the opportunity to correct your documentation.
Open the source code and see if you can start to work out the API. It’s all in there. That’s where the people who are writing it are documenting it.
If you put the effort in, then you’ve joined the team, even if no one invited you. Once you’re on the team, the people writing the code will see you as a contributor and they’ll be more willing to put the time in to help you.
Okay, let me ask you this: Why would the developers of FreeCAD demand their documentation be that inefficient and poor quality?
I mean, we’ve got two options here:
Option A: The developers of the software, the people who already know how to program at the application level, who are already familiar with at least some of the codebase, could write down what all the features are and what they do. Armed with that basic documentation, power users, folks who are specialists in using this class of software for its intended purpose, can create tutorials and coursework to teach people how to make projects in it, or create and share useful macros and extensions and whatnot, building the ecosystem, of our app specifically and FOSS software in general…OR
Option B. We can get weirdly pissy about it and insist that those end users, people who don’t have a need in their lives to know how to write software applications but do have a need in their lives to use mechanical engineering software, to gain enough proficiency in not one but two programming languages to examine the source code to figure out how it works and write the documentation themselves. The best case scenario here is it wastes a whole lot of manpower of competent coders who now have to read and familiarize themselves with someone else’s codebase. Meanwhile, a lot of smaller contributions that end users would have made get abandoned because the support they need to do that deliberately doesn’t exist. So adoption of our app specifically and of FOSS in general chills, we continue to maintain FOSS’ reputation as unusable garbage made by damaged nerds, and the people will continue to say “I would switch to Linux but I need functioning CAD software for my job/hobby so I’m going to have to keep making large recurring payments to corporations like Microsoft and Autodesk who directly support the rise of fascism in the West.”
You want to play a fun puzzle game? Go figure out how to get basically anything done with the macro/scripting system. The app exposes a Python console to the user and they didn’t bother to publish an API reference so you’re left resorting to the “dangle a cat from a string and hit it with a stick to see what falls out” method of veterinary school. Why is being open source an accepted excuse to force users to attend Pinata University?
This is what I tell my co-workers:
Don’t come to me with a question and ask for the answer. Come to me with the answer that you came up with and ask me why it doesn’t work.
In other words, at least try to be the solution. You’re more likely to get help from those who can help you.
Start writing the documentation. Fill in everything you know. There might be people you help who don’t know as much as you.
Post about it, and give others the opportunity to correct your documentation.
Open the source code and see if you can start to work out the API. It’s all in there. That’s where the people who are writing it are documenting it.
If you put the effort in, then you’ve joined the team, even if no one invited you. Once you’re on the team, the people writing the code will see you as a contributor and they’ll be more willing to put the time in to help you.
Okay, let me ask you this: Why would the developers of FreeCAD demand their documentation be that inefficient and poor quality?
I mean, we’ve got two options here:
Option A: The developers of the software, the people who already know how to program at the application level, who are already familiar with at least some of the codebase, could write down what all the features are and what they do. Armed with that basic documentation, power users, folks who are specialists in using this class of software for its intended purpose, can create tutorials and coursework to teach people how to make projects in it, or create and share useful macros and extensions and whatnot, building the ecosystem, of our app specifically and FOSS software in general…OR
Option B. We can get weirdly pissy about it and insist that those end users, people who don’t have a need in their lives to know how to write software applications but do have a need in their lives to use mechanical engineering software, to gain enough proficiency in not one but two programming languages to examine the source code to figure out how it works and write the documentation themselves. The best case scenario here is it wastes a whole lot of manpower of competent coders who now have to read and familiarize themselves with someone else’s codebase. Meanwhile, a lot of smaller contributions that end users would have made get abandoned because the support they need to do that deliberately doesn’t exist. So adoption of our app specifically and of FOSS in general chills, we continue to maintain FOSS’ reputation as unusable garbage made by damaged nerds, and the people will continue to say “I would switch to Linux but I need functioning CAD software for my job/hobby so I’m going to have to keep making large recurring payments to corporations like Microsoft and Autodesk who directly support the rise of fascism in the West.”
OPTION FUCKING B IT IS.