Re: [mv] Reading documentation....

[Ed LaFrance <edlafrance@printexusa.com>]

>******    message to minivend-users from mikeh@minivend.com     ******
>
>Dear All,
>
>I have heard the MiniVend documentation described with adjectives
>ranging from "awful" to "great". I am doing a lot of documentation
>for MiniVend 4, keeping some things, removing lots of things, rewriting
>things, and adding new stuff. But sometimes that is hard work, so I
>need a place to vent.
>
>I will let everyone in on a secret; I am not a programmer. At least
>I wasn't when MiniVend started. Those hardy few of you who have used
>MiniVend since 1996 or so will know this if you have read the code. There
>is much code in MiniVend 3 which is downright amateurish. The code that
>is new within the last couple of years is at a fairly high and professional
>level; or so I am told by people I respect.
>
>The tool I use most often is Perl. The tool I use second most often is
>MiniVend.
>
>Would it surprise anyone to know that I re-read the Perl FAQ and documentation
>on a regular basis? Probably not, though I think that perhaps it is not widely
>done.
>
>But does it surprise anyone that I re-read the docs I have written? Not
>maybe as often as I refer to the source, but I do it all the time. I
>have to.  Though I have a very good memory, there is absolutely no way
>I could retain everything about MV. But there is another, perhaps more
>important reason.  I have learned a lot with experience and my perspective
>has changed, and things I thought were obvious some time back don't look
>quite as obvious now. And I think of better ways of doing them. As it
>is with *any* complex system that I have used over time.
>
>So I encourage anyone using any complex language or system, be it Perl,
>Apache, MiniVend, MySQL, or whatever, to periodically re-read the
>documentation.
>You may be amazed at what you learn in light of your hard-won experience.
>
>Best,
>--
>Mike Heins                          http://www.minivend.com/  ___

Well said!  There is no substitute for feeding your brain!

By the way, Mike, what altrustic passion has possessed you and driven you
to keep developing this system and giving it away?  I would guess it
started as a project for an employer or a client, but it (you) just keep
going and going and going...

Regards (and many thanks!),

Ed L.

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