Hi Hans,
Thanks for the feedback, I'd like to address a few points you have raised.
>With GNUradio the manual (read: Wiki) is a mess, with pages not in the
>index, old or missing information and broken links. Then there is also
>information on github, but non of the afore mentioned sources will give
>you a working installation, because you can't see the forests for the
>trees. If you are an insider, maybe yes. But to a interested newcomer, not.
Improving the documentation is something that we are working to make better. Marc Lichtman and Cyrille Morin have been putting in a huge effort to improve the docs pages and convert them to an easier to use format, along with ensuring there is docs for every block. It's worth noting that GR has been around for 18 years, it has gone through a lot of changes, which can lead to stale documentation. The GR 3.7->3.8 overhaul took 6 years to release. The main focus by the coredevs has been to modernize GR (py3 and other deps/improvements). Unfortunately updating the docs falls behind that. It's also worth noting that the wiki is free to register [0] and make changes by anyone. I'd also like to point out that there is a #docs channel on the GNU Radio slack if anyone would like to coordinate on making the docs better.
>Give you an example: compiled from source using the Wiki instruction. So
>GR did start up, but I got version 3.9! Isn't 3.8 the current version?
>But with the git reference on the Wiki you will download version 3.9. No
>hint whatsoever on how to install 3.8, which git reference to use, what
>to watch out for, etc. The Wiki has nothing on 3.8!!!!!!! This is really
>bad and will make for a very bad impression to people who want to try
>GR. There is this reflector to ask questions, but as I stated earlier,
>this isn't the right way to do things: RTFM, google, forum.
If you're using the From Source method described in the wiki it is assumed that you have some basic understanding of using git and a desire to use a more modern branch of GR than what is provided in your OS's repos. The development model has been announced on the mailing list [1][2] which describes what should be expected with reference to how git tagging is performed. For what it's worth, the Ettus KB has a more detailed step by step app note [3] on installing UHD / GR which covers cloning/checking various branches, however it's still tied to maint-3.7, but will be updated soon to cover 3.8.
>Then there is pyBOMBS, which is supposed to make life easier. It might,
>if it works, but it doesn't. Apparently GR is so complex that even GR
>insiders can't write a script that can grok everything that is needed to
>install GR. The complexity of dealing with many Linux distros is a
>factor I can understand, but then again, I'm using (K)ubuntu and if
>pyBOMBS can't even install successfully on Kubuntu then I think there is
>a serious problem.
PyBOMBs is trying to cover a lot of bases with what it supports. I don't personally use it, but I know it typically gets tested on vanilla ubuntu. Depending up what version of (k)ubuntu you're using, it should just work. It would be useful if you were to submit a bug report to the pybombs repo on any issues you ran into.