Documentation

[Larry Hunter <Hunter@YALE.ARPA>]

There is clearly a problem of documentation.  Todd's last note says "The key
to the whole (embedded systems) problem is documentation."  I would
extend that and say that many problems people have stem from the lack
of available (ON-LINE) documentation.  Now, much of the needed documentation
is about as yet unreleased aspects of T, and the T-folks are concerned that
people will complain if unreleased but documented functionality is changed.
I would suggest that there be several documentation files in an
announced, maintained documentation directory: a copy of the most current
T manual, a file describing the released contents of all environments, and
a file describing the unreleased contents of all environments.  A large bold-
face warning should be posted at the beginning of unreleased documentation
file to whit: people should mark clearly anywhere they use unreleased
code so when it breaks they can find it.  Documenting unreleased code may
have its problems, but the lack of documentation is worse.

                                                    Larry