[GRASS-dev] Call for documentation help

[Jachym Cepicky]

Hi,
just noting: there is already great new demo dataset for GRASS
available. See

http://www.grassbook.org/data_menu3rd.php

The documentation should IMHO be updated according to it.

R demo() is good. I would suggest new "--demo" flag, which could run
small demo script (demo.sh in each modules directory). What do you
think?


Jachym

Daniel Calvelo píše v Ne 04. 11. 2007 v 15:13 -0500:
> I would add, wrt examples, "try to build working examples using the
> demo data available" (spearfish, IMO; we should think about the new
> demo for 7.0). We should probably use a system not unlike R's demo()
> command or python's doctests, where the code examples within the docs
> may be extracted and executed. This might also be merged into the
> regression testing system. 
> 
> Daniel.
> 
> On 11/4/07, Michael Barton <c.michael.barton at gmail.com> wrote:
>         The GRASS team needs your help. As you all are well aware,
>         GRASS is
>         enormously sophisticated spatial analysis sophisticated. This
>         also makes
>         it equally complicated and sometimes baffling for users, with
>         over 300
>         individual modules. GRASS has a top notch integrated and
>         contextual help
>         system. BUT we need help in making the most of the help
>         system.
>         
>         As with all open source software, the development team is a
>         group of
>         dedicated volunteers who work hard (in addition to their
>         regular jobs) 
>         to create the first rate software that you all use. They are
>         also very
>         responsible in trying to document the program modules they
>         code and
>         maintain.
>         
>         This is where your help is needed. In spite of best intentions
>         and 
>         efforts, development team members with coding skills need to
>         put most of
>         their always limited time into writing and maintaining the
>         code that
>         makes GRASS such a powerful and versatile software package.
>         Many of you 
>         in the GRASS community are expert users even if you do not
>         have
>         expertise in programming. It is also clear from the traffic on
>         this list
>         that you are regularly willing to share your expertise with
>         others by
>         answering questions. 
>         
>         Would some of you be willing to join the development team to
>         help manage
>         and improve the GRASS documentation and help system? You don't
>         need to
>         be proficient at programming, and because this is a team
>         effort, you 
>         don't even need to know all parts of GRASS. What is needed is
>         sufficient
>         knowledge of some GRASS modules to help improve and maintain
>         their
>         documentation pages, a little bit of html (the help pages are
>         in very 
>         basic html), and a desire to work cooperatively to improve
>         GRASS. Here
>         is a partial list of roles that are needed.
>         
>         Individual module management:
>         -Add or improve examples. Examples of how to use a module to
>         get 
>         different results is very helpful
>         -Add or improve example graphic in modules. Screen shots are
>         often worth
>         many words
>         -Improve and enrich descriptions in English. In many cases,
>         documentation was written by valiant souls for whom English is
>         a 2nd (or 
>         3rd or 4th) language. Native speakers are needed to enrich
>         these
>         descriptions.
>         -Add or improve non-English versions of the documentation.
>         GRASS is
>         trying hard to be international and is used around the world.
>         Much of 
>         the operational language of the modules have been translated
>         to other
>         languages (though a lot more help is needed in this too). Help
>         and doc
>         pages in other languages would make GRASS much more usable
>         globally.
>         
>         Overall:
>         -Documentation management. Someone or ones to mangage a team
>         of
>         documentation helpers, ID holes and weak spots in the
>         documentation,
>         coordinate with the coding team, and think about documentation
>         standards. 
>         
>         If you are interested and willing to contribute a small part
>         of your
>         time to help others use GRASS, please respond to the GRASS
>         Developer
>         list <grass-dev at grass.itc.it> and copy the GRASS project team
>         leader,
>         Markus Neteler <neteler [at] fbk.eu>
>         
>         Michael
>         
>         --
>         
>         Professor of Anthropology
>         Director of Graduate Studies
>         School of Human Evolution & Social Change 
>         Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>         Arizona State University
>         
>         Phone: 480-965-6262
>         Fax: 480-965-7671
>         WWW: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>         
>         _______________________________________________
>         grass-dev mailing list
>         grass-dev at grass.itc.it
>         http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grass-dev
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -- Daniel Calvelo Aros 
> _______________________________________________
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> grass-dev at grass.itc.it
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-- 
Jachym Cepicky
e-mail: jachym.cepicky at gmail.com
URL: http://les-ejk.cz
GPG: http://www.les-ejk.cz/pgp/jachym_cepicky-gpg.pub

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