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.

Comments:

I'd make the same argument for a closed source system -- feedback from the users of the system is vital for improving the system. Popular software has an advantage in terms of added feedback, and the low barrier to entry makes popularity simpler, and finally, it might make the feedback more deep, but none of what you've said above seems exclusive to an open source model.

Posted by Geoffrey Wiseman on August 09, 2004 at 10:45 PM EDT #

i write this comment only to thanks another time Paul Lamere for his helps in sphinx4 forum. I use sphinx hardly from 2 weeks and i find it great! bye

Posted by Christian Ferranti a.k.a ulver on October 07, 2004 at 05:23 PM EDT #

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