** (from users, brought over to dev - replies will go to dev) **
Brought this over to dev to continue the discussion on exactly how to
proceed with beginner documetation. As David points out we should
figure out whether this is something that should be a separate HowTo,
incorporated into the main docs or something else.
Originally I was thinking of it as a HowTo and that we could take some
of the more important bits and add them to the main docs. But I do
think (actually hope) that the average user skills will decrease as
forrest spreads. Right now it feels very geeky and I have friends who
know something about html and css who may be interested in a program
like this but would't really be able to pull this off with their current
knowledge and, frankly, aren't going to take time to figure it out. If
we want to bring more folks like that into the fold, then maybe moving
more of the basic stuff into the main docs would make more sense. WDYT?
To clarify a little what I mean by beginner, I am starting with as few
assumptions as I think reasonable. The perspective is someone who uses
html and css, probably using a GUI editor, has no command line
experience and can follow directions :). Most linux users have some
command line experience but from linux forums I can see lots of new to
linux users who don't really grasp it beyond the specific thing they are
told to type in an answer to their question. Most windows users don't
have any of it. I use it all the time on my linux/unix boxes but
forrest is the first time I had to figure any of it out in windows (I
now hate backslashes in a whole new way).
-Addi
David Crossley wrote:
Addi wrote:
I am planning on working on beginner, step by step type documentation
over time (as I learn the answers to my own questions).
It would be best if we created a shell of a new document
so that you and any others can work on it together.
More below about that ...
I was wondering
if it would be OK to start a new issue in JIRA for an improvement in
docs on this. That way, as people see problems that new users are
having in the lists, we can add them to the list of those issues in JIRA
to make it easier to keep track of it. Is that appropriate or is there
another system set up for something like this? I feel that keeping my
own scratchpad of issues is not terribly efficient, since I don't know
all the issues ...
This sounds like a good idea. I recommend separate issues
for each item. After we have incorporated that piece into
the documentation, then we close the issue. There is a category
for "Documentation". Give each issue a useful Summary title.
Keep the Description concise, and use Comments for more detail.
Link to mail list discussions where appropriate.
Are you working with the head of development, i.e. the
trunk of SVN?
... and it would suck for myself and someone else to be
writing docs on the same issue at the same time, thereby wasting
someone's time.
That is exactly why we try to work on every document
in the SVN repository. It is then collaborative.
It is also good practice to do it bit by bit, i.e.
progressively build the document rather than do a
whole swag by yourself, only to find that when it
comes time for us to commit the work, that you
have gone off track.
Remember too, that it is quite okay to have
"Fixme:" banners inside the published docs.
It would probably be useful to discuss the overall aim
of this beginners documentation. Will it be one document
in the main section of the website, will it be a HowTo.
That sort of discussion is more appropriate for the
dev mailing list.
This is exciting, thanks for helping out.
--David
What do you all recommend/already have in place?
Thanks
Addi
Ross Gardler wrote:
Tim Williams wrote:
Embarrassingly enough, I was having a difficult time understanding the
much simpler multiple statically built sites with one Forrest. Ross'
answer was helpful and I think my problem was that I never created a
subdirectory to do the seed in so that I had a single "src" at a
higher level than it should have been. Having the "mkdir->cd->forrest
see" and maybe a little explanation of having "multiple sites" would
be helpful somewhere.
We would love a patch for the docs making this clearer, sometimes we
forget these critical points that are less obvious than we assume them
to be.
Ross
