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Posts: 2,829 | Thanked: 1,459 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ Finland
#1
Ok. I´m quite good at googling and also quite patient, but this is starting to get my nerves.

Is there any standardised way how manuals are provided for stuff that is in downloads area on this page or in n900s app manager? Actually why the integration between wiki, bugzilla, garage, maemo.org is way it is? There is great POTENTIAL to do things really smooth.

From where i can find specific manual for n900 busybox default commands with available expressions/options? I´am quite sure that for example find command doesn't work as it is described in unix manual.

Or is this the price(time) what i have to pay for free software :| Actually it´s not free if you paid for you device.
 

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#2
Nobody said Free Software == no price.

As for the manuals I'd like to see man pages for the stuff as well. As it is there is no man command. Not sure if the man pages are installed and only the man command is missing.
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For any repos or anything else I might have working on my N900 see:
http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Ruskie
A quick list of what I have in the repos
zsh|xmms2|fcron|gtar|gcoreutils
 
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Posts: 3,790 | Thanked: 5,718 times | Joined on Mar 2006 @ Vienna, Austria
#3
any documentation, if included in the package at all, is removed after the installation process.

the used to be a standardized help framework in Maemo<5, but that was removed to enhance the user experience in Fremantle IIRC.

I do agree that sometimes it's difficult to figure out what to do after you downloaded certain applications form Extras. Some don't even show up in the applications menu, so the user wouldn't have a clue on how to start them.
 
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#4
Originally Posted by ruskie View Post
Nobody said Free Software == no price.
Not yet. People tend to be more forgivable when software is given free, but yeah nobady said that

btw. Article losely about this:
http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/...usiness-model/

As for the manuals I'd like to see man pages for the stuff as well. As it is there is no man command. Not sure if the man pages are installed and only the man command is missing.
I would be very very happy if someone could find these manuals.

And after installing some software from repositories I´m still quite puzzled how programs works. Most of them are quite easy to learn but it will sometimes take couple of hours to find ways to use program efficently. For example keyboard shortcuts...They are never ever obvious as someone could think. It would really speed up things if there was somekind of manual that developer had to write before going to extra or main repository.
 
Posts: 4,556 | Thanked: 1,624 times | Joined on Dec 2007
#5
It would really speed up things if there was somekind of manual that developer had to write before going to extra or main repository.
I think if that was a requirement you would find less software in extras and more you would have to learn by installing with dpkg -i or another repo.
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Originally Posted by ysss View Post
They're maemo and MeeGo...

"Meamo!" sounds like what Zorro would say to catherine zeta jones... after she slaps him for looking at her dirtily...
 
Posts: 2,829 | Thanked: 1,459 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ Finland
#6
Originally Posted by Laughing Man View Post
I think if that was a requirement you would find less software in extras and more you would have to learn by installing with dpkg -i or another repo.
If writing little table for example keyboard shortcuts is that troublesome it makes me wonder...
 
Posts: 269 | Thanked: 139 times | Joined on Mar 2006
#7
Exactly. An app should NOT be allowed to move from development to extras unless:
1) the description of what the application does is clear and non-technical so that newcomers and average joe's and jill's can understand what the heck its about
2) there is a short help/tutorial section built into the app or at the very least provided as part of the application description in the downloads section.

Are these not requirements in the Maemo style guide (or whatever its called), by the way?!?
 

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#8
I'm pretty disgusted over the fact that in here people just expect that they get everything always for free and without any trouble. And then, when someone makes a program for them to use for free, all the developer gets is shouting and swearing that the free program is not enough or that there is some little detail wrong with it.

Oh MAN, that must really make the developers want to keep making free programs. I mean, how ****ing hard can it be to be polite? I'm sure the developer gets the point even it you people are polite and express your feature requests or other needs politely. I actually believe that the point gets through much better when it is expressed in proper manner.
 
Posts: 269 | Thanked: 139 times | Joined on Mar 2006
#9
sorry if I came accross impolite. i think it ultimately benefits Maemo and the developers to make apps as user friendly as possible.
 
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#10
It's not a matter of being (im)polite.

I do not believe any developer in this world really wants to deliver software that leaves end users helpless... software that a user cannot even launch after it is installed.

I assume - and I'm pretty certain about it - that developers who go all the way from coding, uploading to -devel, taking the input from -testing and finally promoting their package to Extras, that such developers want to deliver perfect user experience for non-geek end users. Otherwise they'd put a *.deb somewhere on the web, labeled "works for me".

So it should be a reasonable thing to give also negative feedback on the usability of the application. Which isn't always nice, but probably helpful.
 
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