Given that definitive documentation for Mailman isn't really consolidated in one place, I often find that the code comments in the Mailman program files (~mailman/Mailman/*) can be very helpful in answering questions or solving problems with Mailman.
I've worked with code in many languages that is so cryptically commented, with variable names that were so non-descriptive (Dan Bernstein's qmail code comes to mind) as to be totally useless if one wanted to look under the hood for help. Mailman code is quite the opposite - well organized with copious comments which can be very helpful if one knows even a little about the program structure. Even if you don't grok python, or OO programming, there's a lot to be learned here.
-- Lindsay Haisley | "Everything works | PGP public key FMP Computer Services | if you let it" | available at 512-259-1190 | (The Roadie) | http://pubkeys.fmp.com http://www.fmp.com | |
On Dec 18, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Lindsay Haisley wrote:
I've worked with code in many languages that is so cryptically commented, with variable names that were so non-descriptive (Dan Bernstein's qmail code comes to mind) as to be totally useless if one wanted to look under the hood for help. Mailman code is quite the opposite - well organized with copious comments which can be very helpful if one knows even a little about the program structure. Even if you don't grok python, or OO programming, there's a lot to be learned here.
Thanks! Mailman 3 should be even better. I'm a huge fan of doctests (not exclusive to unittests, but highly favored) so there should be fairly comprehensive narratives for all the component parts. Soon I'll be fleshing out some higher level overview type documentation too. And because it's all doctest/sphinx, you can generate nice HTML, which I try to do when I release new versions.
-Barry
participants (2)
-
Barry Warsaw -
Lindsay Haisley