Hi, The key question here is: what is our "target group" for the documentation? Should it be targetted to beginners or to experienced C/C++ developers? I wrote earlier that the documentation should start with beginner level, then move on to intermediate and to advance, but after further consideration, I must submit that I was totally wrong!
IMHO, we should have two seperate levels of documentation, or in other words, a "User Manual" and a "Developer Manual". In line with that, the download page at main CS website should clearly have two seperate areas, one that says "If You are New..." or something like that and the other clearly says "For Experienced C/C++ developers"... The area for beginners should provide pre-compiled install packages of CS, some ready sample apps and a "User Manual" which is targetted to teaching how to make a basic working application "without" going into any complicated technical details and using only a single set of tools (for instance Blender-Gimp-VC++ Express) and links to where these can be downloaded. The intention would be to make the user "interesetd" and "excited" about CS and it's capabilities, to "sell the package" so-to-speak! The other area for experienced developers should provide the CVS versions etc. And seperate "Developer Manuals".. Dealing with hard-core technical issues. To summarize, there is no point to confuse a novice with having to choose from multiple options to achieve the same result (to use CS or CEL, to create world with XML world files or Blender or 3dsMAX, to create Terrain with Terragen, Blender or the native terrain generator, to use VC++ 6 or 7 or 8 or CygWin etc. Etc.) This feels like a maze and one cant find a simple straight path to follow. Regards, Tahir. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tahir Javed Sent: neljapäev, 2. veebruar 2006 18:53 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [CsMain] Re: Making Crystal Space Easier: Tutorials, documents, wiki, demos I haven't given it much thought yet but off my head I can say it feels like a collection of random articles at present, (not the Table Of Contents, the actual reading materials). So it should be transformed in the style of a book or good User Manual in a way that it teaches a novice, step-by-step, how to create a basic working CS application from scrath, then moves on to intermediate issues, and then to advance issues. A lot of material is available so it's just a mater of reorganising and adding some missing bits and pieces... Regards, -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jorrit Tyberghein Sent: kolmapäev, 1. veebruar 2006 16:42 To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [CsMain] Re: Making Crystal Space Easier: Tutorials, documents, wiki, demos On 2/1/06, Tahir Javed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > However, there is also another very logical reason why > we dont get so many community-contributions there, namely that the basic > documentation that comes with CS is poor (compared with OGRE), and the > learing curve is very high... Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve that documentation? Greetings, -- Project Manager of Crystal Space (http://www.crystalspace3d.org) and CEL (http://cel.crystalspace3d.org) Support Crystal Space. Donate at https://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=649 ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=k&kid3432&bid#0486&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Crystal-main mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/crystal-main Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=k&kid3432&bid#0486&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Crystal-main mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/crystal-main Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid3432&bid#0486&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Crystal-main mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/crystal-main Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
