see below, please. regards,
Richard Erlacher ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave McGuire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <sdcc-user@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 11:50 AM Subject: Re: [Sdcc-user] documentation & open source generally > On Sep 5, 2008, at 1:41 PM, Richard Erlacher wrote: >>>>> Get in there, try things and if they don't work then you've learned >>>>> something. >>>>> >>>> Yes ... I'll have learned that they don't work. >>> >>> Dear God, PLEASE tell me that you're kidding, Richard. >>> >>> Please? >>> >> I could say that, but it wouldn't be the case. When you "poke >> around in the >> dark" all that you can report or that you can learn is what you've >> observed. >> If you know how it's SUPPOSED to behave, then you can draw some valid >> conclusions about the things you've observed. Do you see the >> distinction? > > Sure I do. However, for example, scientific discovery doesn't > work this way. Claiming that all learning by observation is somehow > invalid is bogus. > So you figure that, to a potential user, the use of this product should be "scientific discovery?" People are supposed to know what a piece of software is supposed to do BEFORE they write it. One shouln't have to guess after it's published. Poking around in the dark is done when you have a piece of undocumented software that you've "acquired" though you don't know how to use it. This sort of question will arise again and again, though you won't notice it unless someone determined to get it "fixed" complains. Most potential users will simply go away. > > Computers don't make mistakes (unless they're told to by people), > but people do. And people are the ones writing software. As I'm > sure you've noticed (especially as a Windows user) software rarely > works as intended. Intent is useless ... real-world behavior is ALL > that matters. > The reason software seldom does what it is supposed to do, as you've said above, is that the spec's aren't written until after the deed is done. As I mentioned before, the reason M$ doesn't publish doc's for their products together with those products is that they're afraid someone will figure out that it doesn't do what it was intended to do. That's because of poor management and, of course, poor programming practice, such as documenting the work after, instead of before, it is done. Now, consider this -- I have a piece of what appears to be fully satisfactory code -- written in ASM -- at least as far as I'm able to determine from simulation. I want to assemble it in the SDCC suite's assembler in order to generate the files that are palatable to SiLabs' IDE, so I can program their part and run their in-circuit debugger. This requires the availability of an OMF file, which SDCC's tools are said to produce. Where is that procedure described in the doc's? How would I go about it? Would you recommend I simply start guessing? > > As a case in point, I quite literally put food on the table with > this "unusable" compiler for all of 2002 and 2003...while you're > sitting here grumbling about it on a mailing list for the past three > days. > The absolute last thing I'd say is that this is an unuseable product. All I've said is that the documentation is grossly inadequate. Now, I've been aware of and tangentially following SDCC since its first appearance on a newsgroup back before this mailing list existed. I decided to abandon my interest in the PIC, though it's become wildly popular, so I left SDCC alone for about a decade. > > Stop griping and go write some code. Seriously. > > -Dave > > -- > Dave McGuire > Port Charlotte, FL > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Sdcc-user mailing list Sdcc-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sdcc-user
