[Qgis-community-team] Re: manual update

[Otto Dassau]

Hi Tara, 

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:36:46 -0700
Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:

> We do want to document new features in the new manual release, but we should
> be (and are) taking advantage of hyperlinks to other parts of the document so
> there is not repitition. If we document a new feature and then link to a basic
> procedure that is out-of-date or unclear, that defeats the purpose.
>
> So I think it is a question of timing. A collection of tasks doesn't indicate
> any order for things to be done, and if we are asking for volunteers, people
> tend to be more interested in new things rather than fixing up old things. So
> I am concerned that if we put in just a list of everything that needs to be
> done, we will get lots of help documenting new features and not much on
> cleaning up the old parts.
> 
> Can we break this up into 2 phases? First the clean up, then the new features?

yes, you are right, it is important to work on the manual in two steps. Update,
clarify and maybe extend older parts first (this is a lot of work) and then add
new feature descriptions.

An idea to organize this: 

We could use section "Procedure for new manual releases" at the
DocumentationWritersCorner for a short description and to link to a new
wiki site "ManualChecklists", similar to the release team ReleaseChecklists [1]?

[1] http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklists

There we can organize and describe general steps to update and prepair the
manual (in fact it partly already exsists here [2]) and add links to version
depending tasks on another wiki site.

[2] http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/DocumentationReleasePreparation

So it would look like:

DocumentationWritersCorner
	|--- ...
	|--- ManualChecklists (with general Information)
		|--- ...
		|--- Manual 0.10 (with TODOs divided in phases)
		|--- Manual 1.0 (with TODOs divided in phases)

It is just a first idea, would this make sense to you?

 regards,
  Otto 

> Tara
> 
> Otto Dassau wrote:Hi Tara, 
> 
> On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:33:49 -0700
> Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:
> 
>   I just finished using the doodle site. It came up in English for me, so it
> must have a translation capability depending on the domain. That's really
> convenient.
>     
> ah great, I didn't know. So it seems we will meet 14-16 May if Stephan is
> available then, too.
> 
>   The main task for the manual is user testing and modification based on the
> user feedback. Everything that is in the manual now should work properly
> before any new material is contemplated.
>     
> yes, but there are also many new features that are not documented or only a
> little like python plugin repository, new digitizing tools, raster layer
> properties, ...
> 
> To get an idea have a look at the changelog for the new release and compair
with
> the current document status :(
> http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/VisualChangeLog0.10.0
> 
> For the manual we could use the "Procedure for new manual releases"
> section at the bottom of the DocumentationWritersCorner and add a todo list
for
> the 0.10.0 version.
> 
> http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/DocumentationWritersCorner
> 
> regards,
>  Otto
> 
>   Tara
> 
> 
> Otto Dassau wrote:Hi community team, 
> 
> the wiki page is almost ready - looks great so far! :-) Sascha can you add
>     some
>   infos and a picture, too? There will a 0.10.0 release announcement soon,
where
> we add some information about the new community team and a link to the wiki
> page. So hopefully many more volunteers will participate and contribute.
> 
> I asked Frank Warmerdam from osgeo to create a new qgis-community-team mailing
> list. As soon as it is running I will tell you and we can switch our mailings
>     to
>   that list. I will also create an IRC (qgis-community-team) channel for us
the
> next days, so we have a place to meet online from time to time.
> 
> A first thing I would like to ask you before we start with a first meeting is
>     to
>   collect some ideas and make a list - what you think could/should be done and
> improved for your tasks within the community team. To get ideas you can look
> at related QGIS wiki sites or compair with other open source (GIS) projects
> what they provide for their community.
> 
> GRASS: 
> http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_Community
> http://grass.osgeo.org/community/index.php
> 
> Udig:
> http://udig.refractions.net/users/
> 
> OpenJump:
> http://openjump.org/wiki/show/HomePage
> 
> etc...
> 
> And we could also start to find a date for our first IRC meeting. I created a
> page at http://doodle.de/t969a2epdqwhmdh5 . It is in german but very easy to
> understand. I assumed we meet within the next 14 days, so you simply need to
>     add
>   your name and click on the days that work for you. After we have a day, we
try
> to find a time ...
> 
> >From Wednesday to Friday, I won't be online, because we have a holiday in
> Germany. So I will 
> 
> best wishes, 
>  Otto
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:01:42 +0200
> Stephan Reber <stephan.reber at sr-gis.de> wrote:
> 
>   Hallo,
> 
> just edited my entry. Everthing works fine. The only thing was, i had to 
> change my picture, because the first was too big. Hope, I didn't delete 
> anything else.
> 
> Regards
> Stephan
> 
> Otto Dassau schrieb:
>     Hi Werner,
> 
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:34:39 +0200
> "Werner Macho" <werner.macho at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>   
>       thx otto!
> 
> everything is working fine .. just wrote my entry (hope i did not make any
> mistake :))
>     
>         no, everything is fine!
> 
>   
>       so.. whats next?
> 
> anything to translate? anyone lost in translation :)  - and i can  lead the
> correct way?
> is there a online meeting in IRC or anywhere else planned? what about any
> instant-messanger addresses?
>     
>         next step is to organize the mailing list. I hope I soon know, if we
>     create
>         a
>   new one or use the old doc list for the community team and then we start
> organizing and working! Until then it will be a little bit slower, because I
> would like to use the list as archive for us. 
> 
> regards,
>  Otto
> 
>   
>       sunny greetings from vienna
> 
> werner
>     
>           
>       
>   
> 
>     
>   
>