[Twisted-Python] Evangelism notes...

[Jeff Grimmett]

On 5/4/05, Glyph Lefkowitz <glyph at divmod.com> wrote:

> where do these helpful people come from for other projects? I would
> estimate that Twisted has tens of thousands of users by now, but the
> community is still oddly silent.


My feeling is that a big part of the problem is that Twisted is so darned 
obscure in places that most people don't feel up to the task. Other - far, 
far lesser, of course - projects get enthusiastic help because they are less 
complex and, well, mystical (for lack of a better word) than Twisted.

For example:

1) I create a subclass of an existing Twisted class in order to add some 
helpful debugging.
2) I run my code but... the debugging code is not being executed!
3) But ... if that's the case, the code shouldn't even RUN!
4) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

I had just such an experience. Grumpy, I was.

But it illustrates the point: I'm no idiot (last I checked). But I cannot 
explain how it is possible that the code even worked, and thus I feel 
completely inadequate to the task of even STARTING to help with 
documentation. Where should I start? If I can't explain the workings of a 
ten-line web server, what hope do I have of providing accurate input to 
documentation? 

-- 

Best,

Jeff
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