[petsc-dev] Old docs for petsc-dev

[Toby D. Young]

> Thanks.  I was confused by the directory layout because if I read the
> man pages at
>   http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-as/documentation
> they are all from the release.  I can browse development docs at
>   http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-as/snapshots/petsc-dev/docs/
> but the changes at
>   http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-as/snapshots/petsc-dev/docs/changes/index.html
> are from the release, and in particular
>   http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-as/snapshots/petsc-dev/docs/changes/dev.html
> does not exist.

What really pisses me off, is that the comments in the petsc-dev hg log,
often don't adequately describe why something is changed. Sometimes I find
some critcal change, like "ThisFunction has been removed"; but no note,
reference, or hint as to why or where to go from there... This just makes
using petsc-dev hard if you are not paying *very* careful attention to
the mailing list and thus know why these (often important, sometimes
inexplicable without documentation) changes take place.

While I do somewhat agree with, for example, "Barry's law of development",
that, "PETSc developers should not pander PETSc users", I also very
strongly believe that "PETSc users should not have to pander the whims of
the PETSc devlopers". A decent documentation of changes in petsc-dev (say
in hg at least!) would very much help remedy that situation from an
outsiders (my) point-of-view!

Possibly I've gone off on a tangent in this thread...

With best intentions,
	Toby


-----

Toby D. Young
Assistant Professor
Philosophy-Physics
Polish Academy of Sciences
Warszawa, Polska

www:   http://www.ippt.gov.pl/~tyoung
skype: stenografia