On Tue, 21 Sep 1999 01:25:55 -0700, Ken wrote:
>  When a new patch comes out however the writer of the patch is inundated
>with questions from the users of the patch seeking clarification on
>operating parameters and ideologies behind the function of the patch.
>One would think that the patch writers would try to head off all of the
>questions they are eventually going to have to field anyway by spending a
>few minutes documenting their new labor of love. 

I think part of it is psychological.  When we're writing documentation, 
we're not writing for anyone in particular, and it's easy to think that
nobody will ever actually read it.  When we're answering questions in the
newsgroups or by email, there's actually a specific recipient - someone 
who will definitely read the response - so it doesn't feel so much like
wasted effort.

Also, there's the fact that when we're answering a specific question, it's
probably only about a single facet of the whole thing, so it's a much less
overwhelming task than documenting the whole thing at one go.  This is 
especially true of complex patches with no well-defined purpose, like UVpov 
or the isosurface patch, or of huge patches like the Superpatch (which I've
opted to "document" by including the original docs for each patch, sparse 
though they may be.)

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