[Bf-committers] Proposal for "View Docs" on Right Click

[Sean Olson]

@Harley - The many to one relationship was actually Campbell's idea, but I
agree with it.   As a user, the user experience would not be very good to
click on 'view user docs' and get some info that is not very relevant to
what you were looking for and then have to click another link.  We really
want this to be 'one click for the info you need'.  That is why we need
human brains for this instead of just generating it.  We need people to
actually look at the option in Blender and say, 'Hmmn, if were asking
questions on this UI piece, what exactly would I be asking a question
about?'.  Then linking them to that page that would likely answer their
question.   Granted, this will not answer 100% of questions, but I think it
would answer most, and would constantly be improved over time.   Perhaps
over time people would actually go to the user docs first instead of heading
over to Blenderartists as a first stop.

@David - This sounds like more of a question for Campbell.  I really think
that everything should be documented.  Settings and values I think are the
points where I personally have the most questions.   The other day I was
wondering what the 'Cubic Interpolation' button did which led me on a google
search that never really answered my question since the math was way over my
head.   I really just wanted to know what the checkbox would do to my image,
not all the math behind how it was working.  As far as items appearing in
many places - I personally would link to the relevant page for where that
setting is being used.  Ie.  If they are looking at the color ramp slider
for diffuse material, I would link them to the diffuse material page that
explains diffuse materials and all the options, ideally, on that page in the
section about diffuse color ramps, would be a link to how that UI element
works.

'noise settings and values go where?'
Noise Settings & Values would go on a new Noise wiki page explaining how
those particular settings work - this would probably be one of the stub
pages created.

'Could users add general info to a page about a data type used in more than
one place?'  & 'Should they put links to other places these settings are
used?'
I don't see why not.

In short, the way I see it, is that we are giving users 0 documentation
directly through Blender.   Any upgrade is going to be very well received,
and it will slowly get better over time.  When we see people discussing how
things are working on Blenderartists, we should be encouraging them to fill
that info into the wiki.   I think that having Blender link directly to
their work will be a big incentive to get it right.  It would be for me
anyway.

-Sean

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 9:45 AM, David Silverman
<silvermindyarr at gmail.com>wrote:

> Id be concerned that a lot of api things that are wiki-able are used all
> over the place, not just in a few operators. Are we talking about clicking
> on buttons only, or also settings and values used in operators? If you
> click
> for help on a slider that does something in a modifier, but the same kind
> of
> slider is used in materials, do you open multiple tabs, one for every place
> used, or do you open only the help for a slider? How do we know that the
> user is working on a slider that is part of a material? what if you change
> the material type? How can you keep track of the intention  of the user
> seeking help?
>
> Obvious help docs would be:
> button operator - docs for operator
> add bone - bones page
>
> not obvious:
> noise settings and values go where?
>
> Could users add general info to a page about a data type used in more than
> one place?
> Should they put links to other places these settings are used?
> A lot of these settings could use help docs :)
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