Read the manual. Always.

So you are self-teaching a new thing or two about that new framework that you just found yesterday. You are doing several google search and find lot of blog post, SO answers and a lot of resources that give you tips, but you can’t make that thing that you want, in any imaginable way.

Let me ask you something. Did you read the manual?

The first thing I check about a framework, library, or whatever new I get my hands into, is the manual.

Manuals are a core part of every framework. Manuals has to tell you how to use it, give you examples, and tell you how every bit of it work. When you develop something, you need to think that people are going to use it, and if you are developing a library, a control, or something that people can use, think about giving a manual with it.

Examples, core concepts, how to use it.. all this things should be part of the manual. Not every developers can open the code, and understand what did your mind was thinking when doing something. And you probably didn’t even put a comment line in your code. So you better explain what is happening. Somewhere!

Why I’m talking about this? Because is important that you, no matter what level of expertice think you have, remember that.

The other day I was playing with my the view of traducir in VUE. It use Vuex to have a central storage (one of the things I think could be improved) and it has an object there. I don’t want to put this complicate, so to be clear, I was changing a “global” variable, and I had an observer that wasn’t changing when it was changed in the store. Weird. So I start googling about it. I found lots of things that try to explain my problem, but since I’m using typescript, no one let me to a good end.

So… Why not read the manual. I started with the Vuex manual. And I found the first clue.. Mutations follow vue’s reactivity rules… Hey.. My problem is in the manual!!! In fact, not only is in the manual, it has the solution there too!!!!

So. I palm my face. The solution is there. In the manual.

So. Read the manual. Or look for clues or solutions in the manual. And if the manual is complex, not enough clear, lack a lot of info (did you read OGNL manual?) then forget about it. Probably, if the developer doesn’t care enough in how to teach you how to use it, probably you doesn’t need it. Really.