Posted by Gary S on May 23, 2019; 2:58pm
URL: https://forum.librecad.org/Documentation-for-LibreCAD-Developers-tp5717390p5717396.html

Shawn.Curry wrote

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2.  I have fixed the Visual Studio build problems, which reduces the number of steps needed to basically 3.  GaryS feels this is still to complicated to be mentioned in the users's manual.  I don't agree (developers are users too Gary), but these new instructions should be documented at least somewhere.  They could replace the old Visual Studio instructions on the wiki, as those ones will no longer work with the move to Qt5.

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I agree the instructions should be documented somewhere, however I strongly disagree that the User Manual is the right place for them.  The User Manual is an end user document, the VS build instructions are for developers.  Those are two separate audiences and each one has separate documentation repositories - the User Manual on RtD and the developers' documentation on the GitHub Wiki.  I also stated that the intent was to keep the number of steps to a minimum.  Although I'm not a fan of the term, the KISS principle applies here.  It is the number of required steps that addes complexity.

To suggest that there are 3 steps is being disingenuous.  The steps you provided are:

   - Follow all of the instructions for building LibreCAD 2.0 on Windows. The steps for "Building LibreCAD in Qt-Creator" may be omitted.
   - Install the appropriate Qt Visual Studio Tools plugin for your version of Visual Studio.
   - RTFM. Set it up.
   - Qt VS Tools > Open Qt Project File > librecad.pro
   - Build

In terms of adding the VS instructions to the Build guide I wrote, there are a few things:
1. I count five steps in your instructions, but yes, the last two are insignificant.
2. The first step involves multiple steps and since it deals with the heavy lifting needed to get the build environment setup, the last couple of steps to build in the Qt environment for an end user are insignificant.
3. You gloss over the need to download and install VS (several hundred MB of VS in addition to the several hundred MB that  are required for Qt and the libraries).
4. They lack the required detail for the User Manual (again, it is a different audience and end users require a lot more detail; "RTFM. Set it up" isn't going to cut it).

Further to the above, there is a separate effort to update the current LibreCAD wiki and that effort separates the two types of documentation (see the discussion in Zulip Chat).  Adding the developer documentation to the User guide is a step in the wrong direction.