Justin Couch wrote:
Simeon H.K. Fitch wrote:
Any chance of having a diff appended to this email, at least of the
"Table of Contents"? I'm not too sure what the use this email provides
us each month without knowing what's changed since the previous month.
Not much changes. It's also not for the long termers on the list either
Then how about we stop posting it to the list, and instead append the
email to the "subscribe" email that new subscribers get when they join?
A more important question is: "Why isn't it changing more often?" I
don't mean this as a comment about your efforts, Justin, but an open
question to the group. There are tons of questions each month that are
repeats and also not covered in the FAQ. Many are answered multiple
times, often times with multiple *really* good answers. IOW, I think
that there is a larger volume of information coming through the mailing
list that should end up in the FAQ. Examples questions that should be in
the FAQ from this month alone include:
1) Extracting projection matrix:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&F=&S=&P=19101
Create mpeg/mov/animated gif, etc.:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&D=0&F=P&P=2854&F=
SharedGroup vs. sharing geometry/attributes:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&F=&S=&P=1242
Appropriate uses for Java3D's collision detection:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&F=&S=&P=27285
How to use textures with alpha channels and the effect of depth testing:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&F=&S=&P=37320
(and my favorite) Where's Java3D for OS X?:
http://swjscmail1.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212&L=java3d-interest&F=&S=&P=16446
...you get the point (I just did a quick scan)... there are many more
and better examples out there. I just want to press the point that a
demands that should be met by the FAQ aren't, and it's not just a lack
of RTFM.
So it seems to me that there is an opportunity to make the FAQ
generation process better. What should be done as a *community* to 1)
assist the identification of questions & answers as FAQ candidates, 2)
make it easier for these to be added to the FAQ, 3) reduce the
maintenance work-load required of Justin (or whoever maintains the FAQ)
to make all this happen, 4) make it easier to keep the FAQ updated and
timely.
Again, this is not a criticism, but a call for discussion in hopes of
making the good better. The volume of this group continues to grow,
indicating positive and constructive interest in the technology. I'd
argue that in concert with this growth, the FAQ needs to grow and
become more robust.
What would be even better are links to the HTML pages that have
had some
change in the past month.
There's no links because the email is plain text.
I didn't really mean links. I meant to say URLs to the J3D site pages
that have changed.
Are there any technical issues that inhibit something like this? Am I
the only person who desires such information?
Only minor ones like the raw format being in XML, not plain text and so
when the new output comes out, it overwrites the old stuff.
XML is a benefit to this end! It would be quite simple to write an XSLT
to convert the XML into a Usenet formatted FAQ file (plain-text) as well
as HTML (gimme your DTD, and some example XML source and I'll do it for
you). You could then post the complete FAQ to the group (if the group
desires) in it's plaintext format, and even annotate updated sections
with '|' symbols (as is often the practice).
At any rate, I love FAQs, and think (IMHO) that more community
participation is needed with ours, and that it has the potiential to be
a resource not just of the newby but the seasoned as well.
Thoughts? Or am I the only one crazy enough to care about any of this?
Simeon
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