[Bf-docboard] Feedback?

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

Hello all,

I recently joined the list and the Mailman config. does not seem to allow me 
to view the list archives. \SO this could be a bit out of context or even 
repetetive.

I initially volunteered to help with Free (as in freedom documentation).

So judging from the few posts I have read so far, I dare to say that you 
should pay a bit of attention to my point of view.

On Sunday 17 November 2002 11:36, Bart  wrote:
> No problem - I just wanted to stir things up a bit ;-)

I used to use Blender on and off before it went bust.
I never bought the book that was for sale and put a lot of the blame for not 
becoming an expert with Blender to my poverty/stinginess.
Anyhow I was sad when Blender/Nan went bust.
Next thing I remember was the 'Free Blender' campaign advertised at the 
[gnu.org] website. I was elated even more when the campaign was successful.

Now here I am volunteering to help with documentation as I feel this is an 
important non-GNU project that has so much to offer to the Free software 
movement.

In this background I think Texinfo should be the format of choice and GFDL 
the licence covering the Blender documetation.
This way we will have  totally Free solution.
(Texinfo is Free, see the [gnu.org] website)

Ok, texinfo could pose a steep learning curve for many but from my little 
understanding there is a movement to revive this excellent format.

Few reasons are as follows
1)Freedom -- also creates a niche for Blender in the very competetive 3D 
market ;-)
2)submitting patches to documentation *is* the way forward.
3)Simple and practicable printed manuals can be produced by those competent 
enough to propagate the use of Blender.
4)Specialised content can be added on to the specialised websites (with GFDL) 
and it will be easy to keep track of branches like these.

Let us keep Blender totally Free!
What do you think?

All the best,
Ram
Ramanan Selvaratnam
Freelance internet developer
GnuPG Key fingerprint = 8ECC B0A2 2603 BE6D 478B  675D 594B 21E4 704E 6B0B