the spraying of DOOM

i've just spent hours sitting with the salesman from our potential new provider. the last few php work days have been spent using trial and error to figure out what the hell's going on with their api, and nql didn't give me time to prepare before the guy arrived this evening. but that's an nql story that might live to piss me off another day.

i was shown the api's documentation - yet another set of automatic documentor pages ala javadoc but for php. and, just like our first provider (although to be fair, they've improved a lot since i first began shouting at them) they give me all the footprints, and none of the explanations.

my favourite is the "For use with this function.". for use? HOW? WHY? what does it DO? what the hell IS it?!

he was quite cocky and confident, until i showed him the specific object i've been having trouble with. i love how people just assume that i don't know my ass from my hat. he started giving me a lecture, but i interrupted him mid-sentence and showed him the function reference. it doesn't so much as specify a return type. he then spent over an hour sitting at one of our other workstations, combing through forums and anything resembling documentation that he could get his salesman's eyes on [one day i'll write about my childhood, and my hatred of salespeople will become clear], even going so far as to look through the api's from one of their providers.

then he got up, and began explaining to me how that's just the way it is, and i'll just have to deal with it. trial and error. fruitless searches through forums (even if the stuff is available, i've long ago learned how bad i am at searching - even googling is an issue for me). much var_dumping and maybe even reading through the provider's source code.

i'm calling my manager right now to tell him what i think of them.