[Dovecot] Lack of external documentation?

[Patrick Ben Koetter]

* Jerry <dovecot at dovecot.org>:
> On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:27:37 -0400
> Terry Carmen articulated:
> 
> > On 03/15/2012 03:06 PM, Steve Campbell wrote:
> > > Firstly, this isn't meant to be critical, and I realize the subject 
> > > line probably suggest criticism, so...
> > >
> > > I was sort of forced into using dovecot as my imap/pop server due
> > > to upgrading 3 versions of OS on my mail servers. So far, that's
> > > not bad. What surprises me is that one of the first things I
> > > usually do whenever I start using different software is to purchase
> > > a book that seems to suit me. Searching all of the common places
> > > like amazon, ebay, etc for manuals turned up little to nothing on
> > > dovecot.
> > >
> > > I'm wondering why and is this so new that people just haven't
> > > written books about it yet?
> > >
> > > The one thing I'm a little critical of, though, is that trying to
> > > make heads or tails of dovecot by following the online
> > > documentation is a little problematic. I'm constantly jumping to
> > > another page and then back to the original page, and for the most
> > > part, I just don't know enough about it all yet to know what I'm
> > > looking for.
> > 
> > The best docs are on the wiki and this mailing list. If you find the 
> > information in the wiki to be lacking, the best thing you can do is
> > find the solution yourself and/or on this mailing list, and then make
> > a wiki entry so the next person will know how to solve the same
> > problem you had.
> > 
> > Dovecot is a complex piece of software, and understanding some 
> > functionality requires reading the wiki, asking on the mailing list 
> > and/or examining the source code. You can also obtain paid support
> > from these companies: http://dovecot.org/support.html
> > 
> > I'll be the first to admit that complex and specialized
> > configurations are sometimes difficult to figure out, however this
> > list has always been a tremendous amount of help.
> 
> The lack of truly informative documentation has been the Achilles' heel
> of open-source software since its inception. I feel your pain. I have
> always loved a hard copy, i.e. book documenting the subject I am
> studying. Jumping from screen to screen sucks, plus how do I highlight
> a passage on the monitor for future reference? There have been a few
> books written to document Postfix, but to the best of my knowledge, none
> exist for Dovecot.

Dovecot is a moving target and it is hard to produce any print that represents
what Dovecot can do when the print finally will be released. I know, because I
am one of the two authors who wrote "The Book of Postfix" and we found it hard
if almost impossible to keep up with Wietse's pace when he wrote major parts
of Postfix.

For now, I believe, the wiki and the mailing list is as good as it gets. Later
when Dovecot settles a book might be something to write and something to spend
money on because it lasts for a while.

man pages would be a good thing, but given Dovecots configuration syntax and
flexibility this might be an even harder task. Its probably easier to describe
certain aspects of configuration or use cases than list all options and their
possible occurences.

p at rick

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