[Twisted-Python] The End, also: documentation

[Ed Suominen]

Mary Gardiner wrote, utterly without influence from burning
> This is my resignation as Twisted's lead documentation person.
> 
> Rest assured I'm not resigning due to any subset of: burning
> disillusionment, raging anger, or rampaging untreated mental illness.
> Rather, I have a bundle of other projects, and they're increasingly
> unrelated to Twisted, which means that I'm not using it for my own
> projects, and, sadly, I don't have the energy left over to task switch
> into an unrelated project enough to lead part of it.
> 
> I'm also, as it turns out, much more interested in reviewing and/or
> editing documentation than I am in writing it. The upside of this is
> that I'll continue to make myself available as a reviewer of
> documentation patches and/or an editor, if needed. Feel free to assign
> bugs on this basis. (I will probably not be reading the mailing list,
> but I don't make myself difficult to find on IRC.) I will unassign other
> bugs from myself soon.
> 
> This obviously leaves gaping holes in the greater Twisted universe for
> people anxious to advertise the glory of Twisted to the admiring masses.
> Do submit some documentation patches... It also leaves a vacancy for
> someone who is willing to be caretaker for the documentation as a whole,
> fixing minor bugs, farming out work and rearranging things according to
> their taste. Apply here, I suspect  :) 

Mary, this Twisted user for one really appreciates the efforts you've
put forth. Indeed, as one of the biggest complainers about Twisted's
docs, I probably appreciate those efforts more than many users. (That
sounds backwards until you think about it for a while, like a lot of
legal language.)

I'm thinking about suggesting (gasp!) myself as your replacement. The
logical, responsible part of my brain is telling me that I'm insane for
doing this. But there's another part of my brain that has an illogical,
probably unhealthy fascination with Twisted and is raising its hand and
squirming on the uncomfortable wooden schooldesk chair with those huge
uncomfortable screw heads sticking out, yelling "Call on me! Call on me!"

As a registered patent agent (http://eepatents.com), I do a lot of
writing as part of my work and bill quite a bit per hour for doing so.
(Here that logical, responsible part is screaming, "So WHY do you want
to do more writing for FREE?") I have complained and whined about the,
shall we say "mixed," state of Twisted's docs for years now on #twisted
and am intrigued by the idea of putting my mouth (dictation) where my
mouth (complaints) is. Plus, (branch) commit access would be kind of
cool for writing those docstrings where I just can't stand seeing those
glaring holes right below "def" or "class"...

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that there is and would
be absolutely no professional relationship between me and the Twisted
project. (Most free software types aren't all that enamored with
patents, anyhow...) I have kind of enjoyed the decidedly unprofessional
relationship that has developed on #twisted, though.

Comments welcome. Any positive ones will likely be viewed with suspicion
and will raise pangs of regret at my making this rash posting. The
negative ones will likely be viewed with relief, at least by the
aforementioned logical, responsible part...

Best regards,

Ed Suominen
Logical, responsible patent agent
Inexplicably passionate Twisted dabbler