more improvements: manual+errors

[David Worrall]

HI all,
Mike made a long wish list recently, which were excellent. I wanted to  
add two points which I have mentioned before but  I seem to have  
misplaced the original post.
1. In parameter decriptions, the opcode manual entries contain a  
mixture of terminology.
For example, sometimes a musicalpsychoacoustic description (note, tone  
pitch) is used when a physical parameter (frequency) is actually meant.
The consequence is that users either have to try to work it out from  
an example (not always easy, waste of time) or ask the list (not a  
good use of the bandwidth).
I would like to suggest that there is a systematic approach to  
correcting this issue across the manual by someone who has the  
knowledge and the authority to commit the changes.

2. Can someone explain why the "bug-ticket" approach to notifying/
solving problems is no longer used?
There has been a recent flurry of reporting of bugs+suggetions on the  
list and I know from experience that many of them are repeats, i.e  
they haven't been "solved" since last reported - maybe not even looked  
at. In fact I stopped reporting bugs because the chance of them being  
actioned seems a bit random.

I think a ticketing arrangement should be (re) implemented. It would  
encourage those posting them to
(a) state their platform
(b) think about the parameters of the issue (hard bug, opcode, API,  
documentation, platform specific., etc)
(c) restrict each bug/request to a single issue, rather than the  
current "system" in which several, often unrelated, issues are raised  
in a single posting whose header may have little to do with the  
issue(s) being reported.

In the current situation it is often not clear to "non-expert" readers  
whether some bug/suggestion is applicable to their platform(s)/setup  
or not.
For users, especially new users reading the list, this increases the  
sense of csound being a difficult platform.

my $A0.035 worth,

D.

________________________________________________
David Worrall.
- Experimental Polymedia:  worrall.avatar.com.au
- Sonification: www.sonifiction.com.au
- Education for Financial Independence: www.mindthemarkets.com.au







Send bugs reports to this list.
To unsubscribe, send email sympa@... with body "unsubscribe csound"