[Bf-docboard] Bf-docboard Digest, Vol 58, Issue 1

[Roger Wickes]

Great in theory to start a whole new wikibook user manual for 2.50, but imho will not work in reality. The current wiki is/was a massive effort taking YEARS, and not likely to be repeated from scratch any time soon. There is much the same functionality, hence authors would be repeating their efforts - frustrating and time-consuming to authors. In many many cases, just a new screenshot is required or a paragraph re-write.  In the two years or so it will take to fill out a 2.50 manual, a grossly incomplete 2.50 manual will be frustrating to users, as they will look in the manual and not find what they want, go back to the main page, and end up in the 2.49 manual anyway. The next time, they will have to choose which manual to look in, before they even know if what they want is even in the 2.50, and will eventually default to going to the 2.49 manual to get something close rather than waste their time. 

For example, I updated the Window Management page yesterday - only needed to add two paragraphs on the different way to split/join windows, and I used the {{Blender/Version|2.50}} tag with a <hr> to separate the 2.50 from what was there. I probably would not have done that if I had had to create a whole new page and link it in etc. I also found it helpful to have the old text there, to see how it was explained before, which helped me phrase and organize the new text. 

Actual authors are few and far between. Very scarce resources means you have to use a very incremental approach. I think it's a mistake to start over, just because the GUI has changed and some terms might change. New features such as Dope Sheet can just be a new page. 

If 2.50 was some kind of new application, I would agree. But I have been using 2.50 now, and to me, as a user, it feels like the same Blender, with the same features and workflow. Now where we need a whole new approach is the Python area, which we have. The 2.49 python api docs need to be completely separate from the 2.50 docs. 

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Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 6:00:01 AM
Subject: Bf-docboard Digest, Vol 58, Issue 1

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