"I can't remember what exactly I didn't get working, but I just felt very lost and overwhelmed, and that was spending a couple of days reading around online, looking at the code and examples."
Exactly.
I don't want to feel "lost and overwhelmed" when trying to learn some new product, or having to Google every single thing. It is a wonder anything ever gets done. Seems these things are written by someone in their ivory tower without any forethought to documentation. "Someone else wants to learn it? Not my problem! I developed it, so there! No good documentation for you." That is just lame.
As someone who has sacrificed his last few weekends and holidays writing documentation for my open source projects, I can assure you that that is not my attitude, and the fact you think so is very disappointing.
Exactly.
I don't want to feel "lost and overwhelmed" when trying to learn some new product, or having to Google every single thing. It is a wonder anything ever gets done. Seems these things are written by someone in their ivory tower without any forethought to documentation. "Someone else wants to learn it? Not my problem! I developed it, so there! No good documentation for you." That is just lame.