[Zope3-dev] RE: Z3 documentation (again)

[Stephan Richter]

On Thursday 03 April 2003 15:25, Garrett Smith wrote:
> When I say "not usable" I just mean that it's hard to get info at times.
> For newcomers (er...the casually interested) the barrier to getting
> started is high. But with a little work, I think this can improve
> dramatically.

Right, but we do not aim at the casual newcomer at this point. I mean we have 
no installation tools, docs and so on. I think something that would address 
this group would be a nice Zope 3 overview article or so. This way the casual 
newcomer has something to hold onto.

> > There is simply not enough manpower behind it to formalize it at this
> > point... this is Open Source.
>
> This sounds like the main issue. In projects of this size, there are
> typically one to two people dedicated to user docs (i.e. not project
> oriented working docs). There are usually well defined interfaces
> between developers and tech writers to manage quality and keep things up
> to date.

Right, but if these interfaces are too cumbersome for the developer to use, 
you will never get feedback. And since most people do this in their free 
time, you cannot force anyone to do anything.

> It doesn't sound like anyone's disagreeing here :-)

Right, I try just to point out the facts. :-) I want to reason why I think a 
formalized approach is not feasable at this point. This might/will change, 
once Zope goes mainstream.

> I'm going to buckle down and try to learn this thing as quickly as I
> can. During this time, I can certainly contribute to the online help. 

Cool. BTW, you can already write a recipe/howto on how to install Zope 3 
products. That would be a very nice start. :-)

> At some point though, perhaps we can make a dent in some of these usability
> issues.

I think a lot of work can be done to improve the Wiki usability. I had done a 
lot of work, but mentioned back in November that much more has/can to be 
done.

Regards,
Stephan
-- 
Stephan Richter
CBU Physics & Chemistry (B.S.) / Tufts Physics (Ph.D. student)
Web2k - Web Software Design, Development and Training