Last month I had to study on TAO which is a open source version of CORBA for C++.
I choosed it since it is free and advised by my instructor. (I am a master student :) ).
For the first week I only tried to install and build it on my notebook. It was like a hell. Whenever I want to build it I took hundereds errors. On the fourth day I did it. It took about 6 or 7 hours to build!.
It was not all. After I build it, I started my project but I couldn't do anything because there is no API! or a user guide. How can I learn more than ten thousands classes and all methods of these classes' functionality without an API.
After I fought with TAO for two weeks, I gave up. I installed MiddCor which is a third party ORB for .NET environment. I installed it in just a few minutes!. I used it for server side. For client side java orb which comes with JDK seems more suitable to me. I gave my project by using these ORBs.
What I learned from this is that, open source is not always best choice. Documentation is at least as important as product itself. Otherwise this product becomes a limited thing that only a few people can use.
Days with more open and more documented :)
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