Peter N. Schweitzer wrote:
Jody,
Thanks for thinking about this issue.
First, uDig is clearly heavy on developer documentation and light
on user documentation. Thats fine; it shows the history of a product
birthed in research rather than made to support a company.
But like this list, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", I'll point out that the wiki
appears (to me) to be the only place to build documentation that
can help people use the software. If there's another, better place
for this information, point it out. But a bug-tracking system is
not the place for users to find that info. (Of course if there were
a mailing list called [EMAIL PROTECTED], I'd be posting this there!)
I agree we need to collect documentation on the wiki - and package it up
for each release. The same documentation from the wiki is what appears
in the uDig help menu (specifically the documentation at the time the
application was made).
My concern was that a) we start writing down the instructions on how to
run udig and b) we not mix up the instructions with bug reports.
Here is the text:
Due to a known problem in one of the supporting libraries, when first
started uDig shows a pop-up window recommending that Linux users
disable advanced graphics. Under what conditions is this necessary,
and for what user interface features are there problems? Is there a
work-around? Perhaps downloading some extra package and installing it
manually?
I do not even know how to disable advanced graphics ... can someone tell
me so we can make this paragraph useful? I join the author in asking
"what is going on".
Second, after some time, different users will have various versions of
the software. The "Running uDig" page says "You can manage your
browser settings in Window > Preferences > Web Browser" but this
option isn't present in 1.1RC10a (not in Linux, anyway--is that a bug?)
So unless you have documentation that's specific to a version number,
it will always be a mixture of info pertinent to several different
versions.
I was making this up - can someone please check it for me? Sounds like
it is not valid on linux :-(
But this all makes me wonder whether there is a well-defined plan for
user documentation. My point is that if you don't plan for it, it'll
creep into places that you don't want it to go.
I want instructions in as many places as I can get them. Mixing them
with questions will only confuse ...
Jody
Peter
_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel
