Duke Listens!: Visit my main blog at MusicMachinery.com

Every morning I check the Sphinx-4 support forums for questions that people have about using Sphinx-4. There are usually a handful of questions that have magically surfaced overnight. I dutifully spend anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour or more providing answers to the questions posed by Sphinx-4 users. Some of the questions are very basic. Those are easy to answer, I just point them to the FAQ or some other document on-line that provides the answers. Sometimes, though, the questions are more difficult. These are questions that push the envelope. These questions reveal:

• Parts of Sphinx-4 with poor documentation
• Areas in Sphinx-4 with a cumbersome API
• Common use cases that are not easily implemented with the current API
• Poor error messages

My daily dose of support gives me a strong hint about where we need to improve Sphinx-4. This close interaction with users helps me understand how people are using Sphinx-4, what areas are confusing, what features need to be supported. I get a good idea how to make the system better. I think this one of the best attributes of the open source model. The tight feedback loop between users and developers leads to a much better system.