Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
I realise it's still summer holidays for many of you, but the lack of
response to my latest iteration of an outline for the book is a bit
disappointing.
I'd really like to see some of us get started writing something. As
you know, I won't be able to do any writing for awhile, and I'm
dubious how much I can do anyway, given my lack of knowledge on the
topic. I feel confident tackling Chapter 1, if no one else does it,
but beyond that... I don't know.
So... will anyone step up and volunteer to draft one of the chapters?
Even a rough draft would be great at this point. Pick a chapter and
develop the tentative list of topics into a proper outline, with some
text where possible and notes for more info or needed images, pointers
to info sources, anything to start filling in the blanks!
Anyone?
--Jean
Hi Jean,
I have read over your outline document and have a few comments, changes.
Regarding using the Getting Started chapter on Base as a seed. I agree.
Xforms - They are not supported within the Base file, but I would add a
section 5.4 Working with XForms I think.
( XForms most likely deserve a separate manual )
Chapter 4 Data Output
You dropped any mention of the new Sun Report Builder (SRB).
If I am correct, I suspect this to be the most used functionality in the
Base module, over time.
My ( stale and limited ) experience with MS Access was that in general
office setting the reporting features where far and away the main use.
Chapter 7
7.1 Working with Macros - There is large amount of functionality found
in MS Access and Approach within the GUI form layer and Query engine
that is just missing in Base. The only way ( well, often the only way )
to perform these tasks is to use a script. There just has to be some
overview of this in the Base manual. from a Base perspective.
Here is an example of what I mean by this:
Suppose I need to work a virtual form ( dataform control ) and I need to
find a list of functions available. If I go to the Developers Guide I
can find them, but since a dataform control is a composite object I
would need to look in all of the possible sub_components.
What is needed is a reference that doesn't make the user ( not a
software engineer ) have to understand this composite nature. They
should see a list of all the functions that can be used with the
dataform contro, without regard as to whether the function is actually
be executed by a XContainer, XRowSet, XStorable....
In this regards I have started a document that does just this - so far
only the dataform control is finished.
But then again - I may be off on a tangent with this.
There are more comments (thoughts ) on the outline, but can't recall
them off hand. I'll try to get them in another email this weekend.
OK - Now to the crux of your email.
There are two individuals that I know of working on independent Base
guides. I contacted both about volunteering to work on this document - I
am hopeful they will respond.
For myself - I believe at this moment the most important thing to get
together is a good manual for the new report builder. I suppose there is
no actual way to have anything 'official' ready by the time 2.3 releases
but there should be something. In this regard ( and falling the category
of put or shut up ) I have started by taking the Specifications
document, with the latest updates, as a starting point. At this point
all I have done is break into a slightly different structure and started
removing the 'geek talk' and replacing it with I hope is more user
centric language. I also have been compiling a list of functions taken
form the OASIS documentation and noting which of these are available
from within the SRB. My plan is to move this function document to the
new SRB page on the wiki ( per the developers request ) - but it should
also be incorporated into the manual I believe.
So, what do you think is the best way to proceed? I could create a page
on the wiki, with the new outline. And start moving the sections into
this. I could take what I have in an Writer file and put it up to the
OOoAuthors site.
Thanks
Drew
