[Qgis-community-team] QGIS 1.0 Manual status and some proposed new additions

[Otto Dassau]

Hi,

On Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:11:21 +0200
Tim Sutton <tim at linfiniti.com> wrote:

> Hi Folks (cc PSC, Sindile for your information)
> 
> We are putting out a QGIS 1.0.0 Preview II release. After a week or so
> for comments, we will freeze the API which puts us another step closer
> to release - hopefully around end December if we can get the critical
> bugs tamed by then.
> 
> 1) I am busy updating all of the C++ tutorials on blog.qgis.org to
> conform to the new API and to use CMake for the build system. I am
> thinking of coverting the tutorials to txt2tags format with an eye to
> generating LaTeX for inclusion into the manual. I envisage adding a
> section / chapter at the back called 'QGIS for Developers'. How do
> others feel about this?

yes, I think it is a good idea. Maybe we can use/add the already existing
chapters for writing plugins in python and C++ to the "QGIS for developers"
part. These 2 chapters are not updated or don't exist yet, but Werner is working
on that.

> 2) In addition I am in the process of negotiating a contract with one of
> our provincial governments to write GIS tutorial documentation for
> K10-K12 school pupils. The documentation will cover basic GIS principles
> and provide exercises where these principles can be applied in practice
> using QGIS. There will also be accompanying screencasts which can be
> packaged onto CD and made available online. One of the stipulations for
> the contract is that the materials should be released under an open
> source license (probably Creative Commons) and should be made available
> for inclusion into the QGIS manual. As I envisage it, the manual would
> then have three basic parts:
> 
> GIS Fundamentals
> Using QGIS
> QGIS for developers

Yes, we still need to think about a license for the manual and creative commons
is probably a good solution. But still I haven't found another project using CC
for their manuals, so I guess there must be a reason for that.  

> My great hope is that after I have created this resource, it can make
> its way into the QGIS manual and be used in an educational context all
> around the world, and that educators around the world will contribute to
> growing this resource. At this stage the contract is not finalised and
> so may not happen, but assuming it does, I would like to know how the
> community team feels about my proposal.

I like the idea, because I prefer to have one official manual instead of many,
and of course it would be nice if educators around the world would contribute.

> 3) I have been drafting a release roadmap for beyond QGIS 1.0 that may
> be of interest to the Community Team. Hopefully this document will
> somewhat address the issue that has been raised in the past that there
> is lacking a 'big picture' roadmap for the QGIS release strategy.
> 
> http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseRoadmap
> 
> One of the proposals in this document is that the documentation team
> only revise the documentation with each LTS (long term support) release
> so that you can have less frequent releases and longer periods for
> consolidation and translation. Please let me know what you think,
> ideally via comments appended to the bottom of the above mentioned wiki
> page.
> 
> 4) Finally I am wondering if the community team could consider putting
> out a 'Preview Release' of the manual (a simple pdf available for
> general download). This will help people not directly involved in the
> day to day work of the manual get a feel for where we are, what the gaps
> are, and hopefully stimulate contributions and corrections. I can add it
> to download.qgis.org if someone could be so kind as to generate a pdf.

Tara and all other document writers, what do you think? 

 regards,
  Otto

> Keep up the good work all!
> 
> Regards
> 
> 
>