Great software can be worthless without documentation

The current status of the documentation makes phpGroupWare virtually unus=
able.  There's enough documentation to get it installed, but (with limite=
d exceptions) that seems to be where it ends.  At the very minimum, there=
 should be a concise list of what each application is and whether it is r=
equired for basic functionality or not.

I looked at the application suite some time ago and the "application list=
" indicated that the list was being developed.  I returned this week, man=
y months after initially trying it, and nothing has changed!

There isn't even consistent naming of a documentation directory within ea=
ch application -- sometimes it's "doc" other times "docs."  The contents =
are often so minimal that my only clue to the functionality of an applica=
tion is its name.  Plus, it appears that core functionality and optional =
functionality are both treated as "applications" which adds to the confus=
ion (and is an illogical structure in general).

Once again, I'm going to uninstall phpGroupWare.  The difference this tim=
e is that I'm not going to ever try it again.  As the saying goes, fool m=
e once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.  I've been fooled twice=
 -- and I'm very unhappy about it.

The unfortunate thing is that I believe there is probably some good funct=
ionality amidst the bloat (sorry, there's no other way to refer to the ch=
aotic [and, to some extent, apparently-redundant] set of applications), b=
ut there's no efficient way to ever actually see the value, to get a clea=
nly-configured system. Sure, I could just leave everything in place, whic=
h is a flagrant violation of basic security practices, but that's not how=
 I administer my systems.

I'm sure the standard answer is that if I want to contribute, I'm welcome=
 to do so.  As far gone as this is, with vast amounts of undocumented fun=
ctionality, it would take far too long just to get the basics down to a p=
oint where I could add value, and I just don't have that kind of time.  T=
his is unfortunate, as I've done a fair amount of such writing in the pas=
t, and would have been willing to help if I wasn't essentially starting f=
rom square one.

IMHO, the only way to resolve this is to immediately dump all the applica=
tions except a very core set.  Then provide basic documentation for that =
core set, and not let any more applications be added back in without docu=
mentation.

As an example of open source, this is a disgrace.  It shows the worst sid=
e of open source -- programmers who develop what they think will be usefu=
l but can't be bothered to document it for anybody else.  When I was firs=
t getting into programming 20+ years ago, and I heard the warning about i=
mproper or missing documentation, I never thought I'd see such an awful e=
xample of the results.  I've seen a lot of code, a lot of documentation, =
and a lot of systems large and small since then, and phpGroupWare is amon=
gst the worst I've seen.

If I thought the functionality itself was worthless, I might not care abo=
ut the documentation.  But teasing people with useful functionality and s=
tealing away any effective chance of using it due to bad/missing document=
ation...   well...
:x=20
Sent from the phpGroupWare forums @ http://forums.phpGroupWare.org