A confused Network Admin

[Gerry Creager n5jxs]

One of the reasons I'm not using ESRI s/w anymore.  That and their
horrible Linux support.

gerry

Ed McNierney wrote:
> Christine -
>
> While I completely agree on the lack of documentation, I am amazed that
> you use commercial software where you can make a phone call and actually
> get answers <g>.  It has been my experience that most users on this list
> find the level and quality of technical support they receive far better
> than they get from commercial providers.
>
>         - Ed
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Lisi, Christine
> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 2:09 PM
> To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin
>
> Marco - I couldn't have put it better myself.  The best OpenSource
> documentation of the four I have dealt with in the last 2 weeks came
> with PHP; twenty-three pages of step-by-step instructions, and they
> didn't forget about Windows users.  I agree that this listserver
> wouldn't be nearly as busy if the documentation on the OpenSource
> products was more complete and precise, and I also wish there was more
> of a collaborative effort between the programmers when releasing new
> versions.
>
> All I can say is, thank goodness for this listserver because I could
> have never gotten through this with documentation alone.
>
> Christine Lisi
> Application Specialist
>
> Management Information Systems * City of Delray Beach * 100 NW First
> Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444
>
> Phone, 561-243-7142 * Fax, 561-243-7166 * eMail, Lisi at MyDelrayBeach.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Marco Marsella
> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 1:07 PM
> To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A confused Network Admin
>
> I would like to reassure Christine that she's not the only one confused
> about OpenSource in general and MapServer in particular. I have over 25
> years of professional programming experience in too many languages,
> starting with FORTRAN IV when some of the listers here where probably
> not even able to read yet ;-)
>
> I find myself also *very* confused because of the terribly poor
> documentation that usually complements OpenSource projects. Most often
> than not, there is just a very technical document that tersely explains
> what you can do with this or that parameter. With most Java projects
> you just find the JavaDoc! There is little or no high-level
> documentation that explains the architecture and lets you find your way
> around. Most of the projects require that you spend an inordinate
> amount of time looking at the code to understand what you can do and
> how.
>
> For me, I find the MapServer documentation absolutely insufficient and
> it is amazing how people prefer to spend a lot of time replying on this
> list rather than investing much more efficiently their time writing
> decent documentation and providing good tutorials and examples.
>
> Please, do not misunderstand me! I think MapServer is a terrific
> project and I am incredibly grateful to the very knowledgeable guys out
> there willing to help through the list. Only, I would much prefer
> having good documentation to work through and bother the listers only
> when absolutely necessary.
>
> As you may have seen, I put my.. time where the mouth is. As soon as I
> learn how to do something, I will post a message to the list hoping
> that it might be of help to others (see "[UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] A
> simple... sample!" dated 10 Feb 2005). Sure, it is a trivial example,
> but it took me *a lot* of time (and a zillion Google searches) to
> figure out, much longer than I would expect! I will be more than happy
> to continue doing so to alleviate the trouble of learning MapServer!
>
> Cheers
>
> Marco
>

--
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020
FAX:  979.847.8578 Pager:  979.228.0173
Office: 903A Eller Bldg, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843