From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Next release from master Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:58:04 +0200 Message-ID: <831t8kbg7n.fsf@gnu.org> References: <8qegda3kfg.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <83h9i695n5.fsf@gnu.org> <87si118q6e.fsf@gnus.org> <877fid5u3e.fsf@gmx.us> <87bn7pwgaj.fsf@wanadoo.es> <87y4atqq25.fsf@gnus.org> <877fidwaka.fsf@wanadoo.es> <8737t1ckh9.fsf@gmail.com> <56BAAF79.2010109@yandex.ru> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1455127115 18437 80.91.229.3 (10 Feb 2016 17:58:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:58:35 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ofv@wanadoo.es, flexibeast@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Dmitry Gutov Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Feb 10 18:58:34 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ29-0003MI-Lz for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 18:58:33 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41567 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ29-0001Do-1k for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:58:33 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:50815) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ1u-0001DK-HL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:58:19 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ1r-0001O7-Ay for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:58:18 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:40273) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ1r-0001O3-8D; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:58:15 -0500 Original-Received: from 84.94.185.246.cable.012.net.il ([84.94.185.246]:2802 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:128) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1aTZ1q-0001tt-G1; Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:58:14 -0500 In-reply-to: <56BAAF79.2010109@yandex.ru> (message from Dmitry Gutov on Wed, 10 Feb 2016 05:33:13 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:199704 Archived-At: > From: Dmitry Gutov > Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 05:33:13 +0200 > Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org > > I'm sure Eli (and the rest of us) would be very happy to see you help with documentation. Indeed; volunteers welcome. However, the best person to write documentation of a feature is the one who made the change, and the best time to do that is as part of or immediately following the development, when all the details are still fresh in that person's memory. If Someone Else™ has to do that, that someone needs to reverse-engineer the changes, look for and browse old discussions and bug reports, try the new feature to fill the gaps in the doc strings, etc. etc., just to make sense of what was done and why, and figure out which parts are important enough to be in the manuals. Sometimes, doing all that takes a few moments, but more often it can take hours or days. It is much more efficient if the original developer provides some documentation, even if it's not good English and without Texinfo markup, because adding markup and rephrasing is a mostly mechanical process that can be done very quickly and without the need to research issues closed many moons ago. Thanks.