Bad documentation

[skipjack]

Bad documentation


Why is it that such a great project has such a horrible documentation?
The documentation for Zabbix v1.1 located at http://www.zabbix.com/manual/v1.1/ gives only
general guidelines to solve problems. And contains many faults.
My main problem however, is the actual content!

One example would be the Win32 agent. It is poooorly documented.
I had to browse these forums to locate some good info on it, for example it's items isn't documented. Now, I don't mind browsing a forum, but many users may miss such valuable information and be unable to utilise this great tool.


Also, what is the point of having a Wiki when it doesn't contain anything?

Under download there is a "manual". In .pdf? Come on, when I really need access to the documentation is
when I am at the console of a server, naturally without any graphical interface, thus no .pdf parser.
How about providing it in plain-text in the Zabbix-package? It is really impractical to have to lynx myself into
your website, and become frustrated by browsing through the thin documentation.

Now this reference manual, it's dated 23.04.2004, that's more than two years ago!!!

I suppose from now on I have to start inspecting the code itself to gain the neccesary information I need
to setup my Zabbix configuration.

Btw, it seems to me that many things are broken or has changed in Zabbix v1.1 without any notice to users.

[Clansman]

documentation is bad? contribute and improve it.
wiki is empty? contribute and fill it.
code is bad? contribute and fix it.
don't like zabbix? use something else.

zabbix is distributed under the GPL license, so it is free software with no guarantees. you have the opportunity to give back your enhancements and fixes to improve the software package, making it better to yourself and to others. lacks something? do it and it get's done. ask for someone to do it and it may get done - no guarantees. suggest new features and they may end up done - no guarantees.

this is the free software and community colaboration world and it's been working well for years. everything you get was willingly done and is freely distributed, so you can't really complain about what you think is lacking.

you have, however, the option to pay for support, in which case the conditions may change a lot, but I know nothing about that.

cheers,

[just2blue4u]

yes, i think zabbix's docs are poor.
Perhaps, because everyone who understands zabbix and likes to work for it is spending his time on improving zabbix, not the docs.

Clansman already said it: don't bitch about the docs, improve them!

[ruckus37]

Dito, it’s free do not expect the devs too keep the documentation detail to the optimum, we need the community too help here, if you are a paying customer the request could be valid, but then again you have hotline support as a paid customer.