[Bf-docboard] A reason for the quietness on bf-docboard.

[Jean Montambeault]

malefico a écrit :
> Hi Jean,
>
> I don't know other people, but the reason I have been quiet is that I 
> already wrote a bunch of docs in the past only to find out that:
>
> 1- Docs get obsolete very quickly
>   
Yup! And it is worse than ever. Yet for some people, like me, writing 
doc is motivation to stay up-to-date.
> 2- It's a lot of work  writing technical texts and getting images for 
> it, wheter they are screenshots or more explanatory diagrams.
>   
There is that.
> 3- Usually there is a lot of discussion about formats (I remember there 
> was Docbook in the past, now it's wiki, tomorrow who knows...)
>   
The Wiki is here to stay.
I do remember the ¬¢¤¦¢¢ era of the DocBook.
That kept a lot of writers off the documentation effort, me the first.

> And besides all that, I also spent quite some time translating all 
> written by me and others to spanish in order to try to keep a spanish 
> version in sync.
>   
I speak French so, I know.
> So... I got tired. I rather spend my efforts in writing a book as 
> Harkyman or Tony did instead of wasting it in endless 
> rewriting/translating...
>   
At least they pay some. LOL
Yet written media gets obsolete between the time the author finishes and 
that of the release.
> I know it doesn't sound too positive but this is how I feel about the 
> whole bf-docboard thing.
>   
The list here is quiet and there is not enough documentation that is 
written or updated but this is only because there is a lot to do in that 
sense. There are quite a few people who are intent at writing for the 
Wiki. Also, if I remember right, there weren't that many coders to write 
documentation, "in your time". :)
> Regards
>   
Same here, it's been good to get your input.

J.
> malefico.
>  
> Jean Montambeault wrote:
>   
>> To those who read this board ans wonder if there is anything ever 
>> documented on Blender.
>>
>> I just read the log of the last Coder's Sunday Meeting where PapaSmurf 
>> did a brave if desperate effort to instill some coherence and some 
>> collaboration to document the new features of the very much improved 
>> BGE. Like Ton said himself, the documentation effort is too scattered. 
>> This is the reason for the quietness here : it happens everywhere else.
>> We write on the Wiki.
>> The devs get some release notes ready, which are little more than candy, 
>> rarely sufficient to interface with the user, although there are 
>> exceptions of note.
>> They also speak of their projects on their corner of the Wiki for 
>> developers and it is, sometimes and interesting read for the user but 
>> this is rather inaccessible due to the technical language used and the 
>> incompleteness of the information.
>> The GSoCers this year have been remarkably apt at documenting their work 
>> : hopefully a source of inspiration for others.
>> There are blogs (Broken, Farsthary, Harkyman...) which are the most 
>> explicit next to...
>> ...open threads on BA. Not every devs likes to rub elbows with the 
>> users, for some pretty good reasons IMHO, yet there are the brave ones 
>> (UncleZeiv, Farsthary, Jahka...) that will open such threads and in 
>> there one can find every detail that one wish or ask for whatever is 
>> missing.
>> There is a mailing list: bf-cvs-blender where every commit is echoed. 
>> The dev is supposed to described what his code do. There are those who 
>> excel at it (Ton, Benoit Bolsee, Josuah Leung...) and those who'd rather 
>> speak in tongues.
>> So, if you intend to write in the wiki there are your sources with 
>> possibly one more : contact the dev. That is what I did with Theeth who 
>> dwell in highly esoteric spheres but can make even the total layman that 
>> I am understand what he's doing, with patience and elegance.
>>
>> There, it's off my chest at least and in the records.
>>
>> Jean
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>>   
>>     
>
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