On Sunday 18 July 2010 14:34:23 Margaret and George McIntosh wrote: > On 18 Jul 2010 at 14:10, John Culleton wrote: > > On Sunday 18 July 2010 12:30:37 Alexandre Prokoudine > > > > wrote: > > > On 7/18/10, John Jason Jordan wrote: > > > > My hat is off to the Scribus team for having created a > > > > manual. Few open > > > > > > source projects have a manual. > > > > > > Quite in opposite. Most GNOME and KDE applications > > > > have manuals. Just F1 :) > > > > > > Most don't even have PDFs. At least half > > > > don't even have a help file. > > > > > > Producing a PDF out of DocBook/XML from any > > > > GNOME/KDE app's help is > > > > > not exactly rocket science. > > > > > > > Some would create documentation, but hate to write, or > > > > can't > > > > > > write at all. To most it never occurs that documentation > > > > is important. > > > > > Writing documentation is not job of a programmer. Then > > > > don't have to > > > > > even think about it. > > > > In my days as a programming supervisor, it was considered > > good form to create user documentation first, then do the > > coding to fit. For program documentation (HIPO diagram, > > flow chart, Decision Logic tables etc.) that was generally > > done and approved before coding started. > > > > In today's world things are different, but the person who > > understands the functionality is still the best person to write > > the user guide. I have never understood the unwillingness of > > programmers to write user guides. After all, English (or > > whatever) is just another language, like C or Python. > > Have you ever read some of Microsoft's help and users manuals? They are > written in a language I don't understand, even though it is English. Are > they written by programmers? > > _______________________________________________ > scribus mailing list > scribus at lists.scribus.info > http://lists.scribus.info/mailman/listinfo/scribus
The installation instructions for e.g., Win XP is about as far as I have gone with Microsoft. I don't doubt that many programmers write lousy instructions. I have never understood why. The current Scribus Manual is pretty good. Some of the books on Gimp, Incscape etc are excellent. The first part of the documentation on the Memoir class of LaTeX is a gem, and has now been made available separately. It describes what authoring, layout etc. is all about in generic terms. -- John Culleton Wexford Press "Create Book Covers with Scribus" Printable E-book 38 pages $5.95 http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html
