[vtkusers] Re: Something for nothing....

[Joey Mukherjee]

On Mar 18, 2004, at 10:35 AM, James C. Robinson wrote:

> It is not a matter of wanting something for nothing. It is a matter of
> realising that I am not the only one having difficulty (evidenced by 
> the
> incredibly varying level of difficulty people are having as per the 
> ongoing
> messages)

No one posts messages saying everything is working well.  You only see 
the problems.

> be if use to me. I haven't advanced enough as a user to start 
> suggesting
> solutions to people (and I assume that there are people better placed 
> that I
> to give succinct, complete answers).

But those people have moved on to solving their own problems, not 
solving everyone else's.  Two newbies can become experts by learning 
from each other's mistakes without having a guru teach them.  I admit, 
I only use 1-2% of all of VTK's power.  I was slightly more active in 
the early days, but now not so much, mainly because I have VTK doing 
what I need it to do.  I think the forum is a great idea, but that's 
exactly what this message list is: a forum.  You think if there were 
better documents, people would find VTK easier.  Maybe, but there are 
always newbies at varying levels of ability in C++ and visualization in 
general.  A document which is clear to one, is completely abstract to 
another.

Don't let me discourage you from writing more documentation though.  I 
think its a great idea, and I could contribute one as well for some of 
the visualizations that we do here if I had an example document from 
which to work.

For the record, I am nowhere near a VTK expert.  But like I said, I 
have gotten VTK to do what I needed it to do, and I may not be doing it 
the best way possible, but it does work.  Naturally, there are some 
things I never got working which I would love to get fixed 
(MapProjections in VTK!).

Joey