[Bf-docboard] Who's in charge? What's going on?

[Stefano Selleri]

Hi!

> still, I'm a bit confused, but I try to sum up what I understood so far.
Sorry for that :(

> When you say "the core guide", you mean the community doc at
> http://download.blender.org/documentation/html/ , right?
Yes

> This core guide is the base for the 2.3 book, which is coming soon. But
(this is
> not clear to me) the problem is that the core guide was developed using
two
> licenses(namely OC + Blender Artistic), while the 2.3 book should be
published
> under OC only, right?
No,
The core guide is OC, period.
The Artistic license was developed for other people wishing to submit
their contribution as demo, blend files
or tutorials and wishing for a 'stricter' license.

> At the moment, there are only two persons, you, Stefano, and Ton, working
on the
> 2.3 book.
Well, there are also the people doing the DTP, but, basically, yes.

> When the book is ready, it's contents go back to the site and to the CVS
source
> at
> http://projects.blender.org/projects/docboard/ , but only as html. (xml?
> whatever)
As XML, which is directly translatable to PDF, LaTeX, HTML etc....

> If it's like that, then I don't understand, why you didn't just continue
using
> CVS and an open development. Why the freezing? I never wrote a book, so I
don't
> know what publishers like or need. Has it something to do with layout?
Because, given the relatively small number of person actively working on the
documentation,
the effort of working on the Book AND keeping the CVS was too much, in my
humble
opinion, expecially because the book has been proofread by professionals
hence its content has been upgraded in many places. To have the CVS
still on and updated would have lead to TWO documentations, which could
have been very difficult to merge afterwards (hey X, your chapter I'll throw
away because
Y on the book has upgraded it and his is better....)

> You talk about "developing in parallel", as if there wouldn't be any other
> possibility. Why is that? Why not, at some point of time, just taking the
CVS
> sources, doing the layout, and publishing the book (without the freezing)?
Because:
1 - That is what is happening! Took the sources, do DTP, publish
2 - DTP and publish takes *weeks* we are in those weeks
3 - freezing means 'I will not commit any changes for a while'

> And why are there two CVS projects, one for the docs, and one for Blender
itself?
> Why can't a developer just change some code, and update the docs, or at
least
> mark the parts of the docs that have to be updated?
This is deeply phylosophical. Coders love to code, good coders keep good
changelogs
but that's all. It is very difficult to have a coder stop coding and writing
doc, and it is sometimes not a good idea either, let him go on coding!

> And why isn't the blender.org + blender3d.org source in CVS? Who maintains
the
> website, anyway? It seems kinda outdated. The probability for someone
making an
> update would be maybe higher with CVS, because there would be more people
with
> (easier) access.
blender.org is updated
blender3d.org is largely old material kept online
Ton is top guy !

> > 2 - Writing/accepting as donations other tuts
> >     covering areas not covered by old NaN tuts
>
> "Accepting" means proof-reading?
No, means brand new tuts :)

> > So if you are willing to collaborate actively as it seems, let's talk of
> > tuts :)
>
> What I could do is try out the tutorials and see if I can make them work
for the
> latest version(2.31a, right?). Should I use DocBook and the styleguide at
> http://download.blender.org/documentation/html/x20988.html ?
Yeah! that's it.

Which OS do you use?

> Sorry about all these questions, but there is not much information out
there (or
> I simply couldn't find it).
No problem ;)
you're welcome

Stefano