[QGIS-Developer] QGIS 4.0 - let's start some early discussions!

[Anita Graser]

Hi Calvin,

On Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 6:16 PM C Hamilton <adenaculture at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I had offices that were primarily using QGIS and who were developing
> scripts to handle their work flow. When QGIS 3 came out they got so
> frustrated with the lack of documentation and the complete break of the
> API, with no program that would take their scripts and make them QGIS 3
> compatible, that they completely abandoned QGIS and went back to ESRI.
> Despite the fact that I love QGIS 3 and think it is better than QGIS 2, I
> find there is now less interest in using QGIS. I have less customers then I
> used to have and it will probably take at least another year or two to get
> back to where I was at.
>

I agree that there is a problem here.

I know that as developers we want to continue to improve the code, add new
> features, and have a fun time. Fun tends not to be associated with
> documentation. I cannot tell you how important the documentation and
> training materials are. I would prefer seeing less new features but make
> sure the documentation is excellent and up-to-date.
>

I don't agree with the implied solution (i.e. slowing down development to
focus on documentation) because I don't see how this is economically
feasible.

If those offices that switched back from QGIS to ESRI would have invested
the money they are now paying for licenses into QGIS, we could probably
have fulfilled Tim's vision of having someone working full-time on QGIS
documentation and Q&A.

They could also have hired a developer to write the missing documentation.
Or hired someone to port their scripts. Or stayed with QGIS 2 until more
documentation is ready ...

This story is sad and frustrating but we need to find an economically
feasible solution and I think that involved educating users about how open
source projects work.

Regards,
Anita
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