17905 MTP is missing from Help Contents, Index and Search

[chrisjj]

Subject says it all.

[Aaron]

We'll be working on the Help file, but are concentrating on bug fixes and feature implementation. For the duration of the BC4 beta, it is likely the Help will be slightly out of sync with the current feature set, as some features might change (slightly or drastically) before release. As things settle down into final designs, we'll be auditing and updating the Help.

[chrisjj]

For the duration of the BC4 beta, it is likely the Help will be slightly out of sync with the current feature set

I think this discrepancy is more than slight. A feature cannot be properly tested if you won't say how it is supposed to work.

[Zoë]

If it isn't at least somewhat obvious how a feature should work I'd classify that as a deficiency in the user interface, not the documentation. You can launch an MTP comparison from the Explorer menu or the browse dialog. The most significant issue that's worth documenting is that setting last modified times doesn't work, and it's read-only on iOS.

[chrisjj]

'Somewhat obvious' is insufficient for proper testing, ITYF. As the large number of bugs shipped in BC3 surely demonstrated.

[Zoë]

I'd say the the number of bugs in BC3 was caused by the size of our development team relative to the number of features, the wide variety of systems and file formats it's run against, and the size of the user base. All of those would point towards more money for testers, not documentation.

[chrisjj]

All of those would point towards more money for testers, not documentation.

I'd agree... where documentation was adequate to support testing.

I do wonder Craig how you apply your "If it isn't at least somewhat obvious how a feature should work I'd classify that as a deficiency in the user interface, not the documentation." to features such as file masks, regular expressions, command-line options and scripting. To use those without documentation, one has to apply trial and error. To test them without documentation is meaningless.

[Zoë]

It just so happens that all of those have documentation, either within BC, or in the case of regular expressions, in numerous places online. When it comes to something like MTP support, I'd hope that it would require substantially less documentation. There certainly isn't anything obvious in Explorer's help for "portable media device" that tells me every idiosyncrasy.

Chris, I know this annoys you, but we are *never* going to have documentation that is up to your expectations. For one thing, a lot of our features are developed incrementally and adjusted based on customer feedback throughout the beta, rather than being designed entirely upfront. We aren't going to hold off releasing those features, especially during the beta, so the documentation will always lag. For another, for better or worse, we don't have a dedicated QA department, so testing is shared between the support personnel and the developers, who dogfood it every day. We can easily ask each other if we have questions about intended functionality. For the external beta process we're largely interested in configurations we can't test, actions that we didn't anticipate, things that aren't clear or don't work like a customer expects, or features/enhancements to improve the polish. Very little of that would benefit from better documentation. Finally, based on customer feedback, you are in the minority in thinking that either (A) the documentation is significantly deficient, or (B) that we should prioritize it over other enhancements.

In any case, we haven't documented many of the features introduced in BC4 and we're well aware of that fact. We will be improving it as we transition from aggressive development to stabilization and preparation for the final release. If you don't feel you can test adequately in the meantime then I'm sorry; you can monitor our News & Announcements forum or Facebook/Twitter to get notified when the final release is ready.

[Dave_L]

who dogfood it every day

This is off-topic, but what does that mean?

[grindax]

This is off-topic, but what does that mean?

?q=dogfooding

[Aaron]

As humorous as lmgtfy can be, we try to avoid its use on our forums

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

[chrisjj]

For one thing, a lot of our features are developed incrementally and adjusted based on customer feedback throughout the beta, rather than being designed entirely upfront.

You could try your incremental develop method on the docs. Keeping them in sync.