Live data from Hacker News

Esmerelda's imagination

commandcenter.blogspot.com

1–4 of 4 posts

Re: Esmerelda's imagination

#4
I can't help feeling that he's barking up the wrong tree: If people criticize your new language for imaginary shortcomings, then maybe the available documentation isn't communicating its purpose/idioms/concepts clearly enough.

Not saying that a new language needs to launch with impeccable documentation and a crystal-clear understanding of what problem it tries to solve at all, but those "I can't imagine ..." criticisms can also be a (not-so-greatly worded) way of saying "I don't understand" - an opportunity to learn how to talk about the language better.

I'm sure a lot of people here have already learned this lesson the hard way, but: If you're blaming your product's users for not reading the docs (or for not trying it out), you're missing out on a great opportunity to improve it.