Dec02
Software Life Cycle.
Editor’s Notes
The Cartoonist assures us that “frustricement” is a real word. Specifically: “Well, it is now.”
The image may be downloaded in higher resolutions:
↓ Transcript
Panel heading: STAGE 1: Software Release.
README
------
coolprog 1.0
------------
Open source.
See LICENSE.
No docs yet, only brief release notes. Please volunteer to write docs.
Panel heading: STAGE 2: Frustricement.*
Woman: I love coolprog 1.0 but I need a good tutorial!
Man: Great program but documentation sucks!
Footnote: *Frustration + excitment.
Panel heading: STAGE 3: Determination.
Man: Our Coolprog Documentation Project volunteers will have it fully documented in no time!
Woman: Hurry! I need to process my Ph.D. thesis with coolprog!
Narrator: How do you document something knowing nothing about it? Let me count the ways.
Narrator: Luck.
Woman: Hey look! I accidentally typed -z and got a whole new reverse scaling menu!!
Narrator: Reverse engineering.
Man: I waded through the source code and figured out the scaling features! I think!!
Narrator: Ask the author.
Man: The author answered my email! He said try it and see!!
Narrator: Exhaustive search.
Woman: I searched and I found this hidden option! Let's figure out how to use it!
Narrator: Google.
Man: Google gave me 20,000 hits for “how do you reverse scale with coolprog 1.0”!!
Man: Wait -- all 20,000 are people just asking the same question.
Panel heading: STAGE 4: Triumph.
Man: We did it!! The Project has reached the 80% completion milestone!
Panel heading: STAGE 5: Nirvana.
README
------
coolprog 2.0
------------
TWICE AS MANY FEATURES! Upgrade now, MANY BUGS FIXED.
No docs yet, only brief release notes.
Concluding text: And the software life cycle begins anew.
Title: Software Life Cycle.
README
------
coolprog 1.0
------------
Open source.
See LICENSE.
No docs yet, only brief release notes. Please volunteer to write docs.
Panel heading: STAGE 2: Frustricement.*
Woman: I love coolprog 1.0 but I need a good tutorial!
Man: Great program but documentation sucks!
Footnote: *Frustration + excitment.
Panel heading: STAGE 3: Determination.
Man: Our Coolprog Documentation Project volunteers will have it fully documented in no time!
Woman: Hurry! I need to process my Ph.D. thesis with coolprog!
Narrator: How do you document something knowing nothing about it? Let me count the ways.
Narrator: Luck.
Woman: Hey look! I accidentally typed -z and got a whole new reverse scaling menu!!
Narrator: Reverse engineering.
Man: I waded through the source code and figured out the scaling features! I think!!
Narrator: Ask the author.
Man: The author answered my email! He said try it and see!!
Narrator: Exhaustive search.
Woman: I searched and I found this hidden option! Let's figure out how to use it!
Narrator: Google.
Man: Google gave me 20,000 hits for “how do you reverse scale with coolprog 1.0”!!
Man: Wait -- all 20,000 are people just asking the same question.
Panel heading: STAGE 4: Triumph.
Man: We did it!! The Project has reached the 80% completion milestone!
Panel heading: STAGE 5: Nirvana.
README
------
coolprog 2.0
------------
TWICE AS MANY FEATURES! Upgrade now, MANY BUGS FIXED.
No docs yet, only brief release notes.
Concluding text: And the software life cycle begins anew.
Title: Software Life Cycle.