Hi Jose, Yes, documentation is important, but working software is even more important IMHO, and we have limited resources.
And honestly: who among us has ever read a full software manual? So I am very much in favor of tutorial videos. But we should decide on a common style of presentation and have a native English speaker provide the voice-over (or just use text annotations -- also good). Where it really counts, i.e. the SEXTANTE and GRASS geoprocessing tools, we have pretty good manual pages. SAGA GIS is missing manual pages for the individual modules, which is a pity. So if someone wants to invest some time, then it would be a good idea to take the recently released SAGA User Manual and transfer the information in there into one HTML manual pages for each SAGA module. This should be done in close collaboration with the SAGA project. I am sure they would provide an elegant way of embedding this into future SAGA GIS releases. For longer how-to style write ups, we have the Wiki. Ben On 10/20/2011 10:09 PM, José Antonio Canalejo Alonso wrote: > Hello all, > what do you think about something like this (http://geo.ideaplus.com.br)? > I like it very much. The only problem is the mix of languages (english, > spanish, portuguese). > Between 2007 and 2009 we were working with a group of volunteers > (http://www.gvsig.org/web/community/agradecimientos/traductores/) > translating the handbook of gvSIG 1.1.2 into german. The whole manual > was translated and it "should" be available behind this link > (http://www.gvsig.org/web/projects/gvsig-desktop/docs/user/gvsig-desktop-1-1-manual-de-usuario/gvsig-desktop-1-1-manual-de-usuario/not_available_lang/view?set_language=de). > It took a long time to be finished. We wrote a document to explain the > people how they could edit the plone themselves. At the end most of them > sent us their translations because they didn't find time to edit the > plone and we had to edit it ourselves with one or two volunteers. Screen > shots were not translated into german and actually, AFAIK no one is > doing the translation into german of 1.9 (1.10 or 1.11). > People expect to have the software with handbooks, manuals and tutorials > but it is difficult (not impossible) to find funding for this. > One of the major difficulties of open source projects is the lack of > documentation. Handbooks and tutorials are often done many months after > the version is released. > So we have to look for a solution. On the web you will find a lot of > videos and tutorials like the link mentioned above. Users like to make > these kind of tutorials. They don't need instructions and they can work > autonomous. We have a software with more than 800 functionalities (even > more now with R-Sextante Interface: > http://sextantegis.blogspot.com/2011/10/r.html). We are testing them and > simultaneously we could make small tutorials and put them in a common > gvSIG CE platform (wiki, google sites, ... and whatever related web > solutions people would like to bring up). We could provide a template > with gvSIG CE layout to make it nice and easy for authors. We could > include author's name and contact e-mail address to promote their work > with the project. It is better to have a common platform than thousands > links on the web (oft with the same information) > I think it is a good way to bring different people together to exchange > thoughts and know How. > What do you think about? > Best regards! > Jose > -- > José Antonio Canalejo Alonso > gvSIG CE Team > www.gvsigce.org > Get involved! > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > The demand for IT networking professionals continues to grow, and the > demand for specialized networking skills is growing even more rapidly. > Take a complimentary Learning@Cisco Self-Assessment and learn > about Cisco certifications, training, and career opportunities. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/cisco-dev2dev > > > > _______________________________________________ > Gvsigce-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gvsigce-users -- Benjamin Ducke {*} Geospatial Consultant {*} GIS Developer [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The demand for IT networking professionals continues to grow, and the demand for specialized networking skills is growing even more rapidly. Take a complimentary Learning@Cisco Self-Assessment and learn about Cisco certifications, training, and career opportunities. http://p.sf.net/sfu/cisco-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Gvsigce-community mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gvsigce-community
