On 05/01/2013 02:47, Ed Kelly wrote:
Also notice that neither you nor I are the least bit interested in fixing these
problems in the FLOSS manual, and we're especially not interested in taking
it on as a long term project. Who does that leave? If it leaves anyone
wouldn't their time be better spent fixing the doc problems listed on the
tracker
than etching in stone a description of a moving target?
Well, if you have to teach Pd to art students who are used to using Photoshop
and Final Cut Pro (as I do) the FLOSS manual page is very useful to give them
some idea of what the objects are. It may not be 100% accurate, but at least it
is (only) a start. I do hope that the search mechanism replaces static docs
conceptually, but here is why they should be kept.
Learning Pd from scratch is not easy unless you are already a computer scientist. "How do I know what
the objects are called" is I agree, the wrong question in so many ways. However, 80% of my undergraduate
students basically give up at that point if they can't find the answer, and probably 60% of my masters
students, often after saying "I hate Pd". This question usually comes up in the first lesson. I
could criticise them for this, except that there is an impression that Pd is "open" as well as
open-source. Is it? Or is it highly elitist? I think it can be both, but I don't want to kick away the
ladder...
Perhaps the problem lies more with "standards" for documentation across the
whole community - it's never going to happen (remember Pdpedia?) because the Pd community
can be somewhat anarchic. Hats off to Hans - making Pd-extended work is like nailing
jelly to the wall I guess.
There are some small things we could do. For example, a description of what
lies in each folder of externals and what they are for may well be enough,
followed by a list of objects. My students are _scared_ of Pd because it is so
utterly different to anything else they have ever engaged with. A bit of
documentation that isn't in Pd itself eases the pain somewhat.
A static web page will never be up-to-date since the pd externals folder is
always a moving target. But it is better than nothing. It was really hard
persuading students to learn Pd when Flossmanuals didn't exist. It's still
hard, but it does open some doors to my students.
Ed
-Jonathan
.hc
I agree this is something useful despite all that has been said. It's
not perfect or up to date, but it's really better than nothing.
It is also a bit easier to access for non-English speakers since you can
translate theses lists (not the object names - yet ;) ) But Search and
help-patches are limited to English for the moment.
pob
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