Scott,
Yes, Sarina Bromberg participated actively in crafting the new
chapters "Getting Starting with Commands"
http://pymol.sourceforge.net/newman/user/S0210start_cmds.html
and "Command Syntax and Atom Selections"
http://pymol.sourceforge.net/newman/user/S0220commands.html#7
which are available as part of the new "Incentive" Manual, a draft of
which can be found on http://pymol.sourceforge.net/newman/user/toc.html
. Right now, it is not that different than the old manual.
However, in the process of out-sourcing these two new chapters,
I was forced to acknowledge that there was almost an order of magnitude
difference between the amount of money I had available to spend on
documentation, and the amount of money it would actually cost to pay a
reasonably-priced professional to write the entire document. In dollar
terms, a good manual set for something as complex as PyMOL is at best a
high five-digit project, but could easily cost 2-3 times that.
This realization was part of the driving force behind my
decision to leap into the project full-time. Clearly I wasn't going to
be able to raise sufficient funds from customers as an "uncommitted
part-timer" with a program lacking sufficient documentation. Likewise,
I wasn't going to be able to out-source preparation of documentation
without sufficient funds. By going full-time, I have both internally
assumed responsibility for making sure that PyMOL becomes a respectable
and documented system, while also obtaining access to sufficient
quantities of my time to get us past this "chicken/egg" stage in many
areas.
By committing myself fully to the project, I hope that more and
more PyMOL users will find it within themselves to also commit something
to the effort. So far, sponsorship has increased, but we are not yet at
the point of sustainability. Either we need more users, or a higher
participation rate. We need good docs and tutorials in order to get
more users, or we need practical incentives to get higher participation.
If enough funding comes in that we can again out-source, then
we'll reach that happy documentation place sooner. But if not, we'll
still eventually get there through my own efforts -- it'll just take
longer... years instead of months. I'm also looking into alternate
sources of funding which wouldn't force me to compromise the Open-Source
business plan. Any and all leads are appreciated.
The decision to place the new manual under a very gentle
"incentive" status will hopefully lead to income which can further
accelerate documentation. Details on the new manual's status can be
found at:
http://pymol.sourceforge.net/html/index.html
The existence of this Incentive manual does not and should not
preclude other third parties from writing their own documentation and
distributing it freely on the internet. I see that as another
reasonable way that we might get to a reasonable state of documentation
for PyMOL -- in fact I'd prefer it. But if that doesn't happen, then
we'll eventually get there anyway via economic incentives and my own
stubborn efforts.
Cheers,
Warren
--
mailto:war...@delanoscientific.com
Warren L. DeLano
Principal Scientist
DeLano Scientific LLC
Voice (650)-346-1154
Fax (650)-593-4020
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Classen [mailto:clas...@uclink.berkeley.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 4:38 PM
To: Warren L. DeLano
Cc: pymol-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: PyMOL manual
> My advice is not to try to figure out all this stuff by yourself, but
> rather to try the new demos and then ask questions via the mailing
> list.
> Or, simply wait until I get some time later this month or next to
> update
> the documentation. T
Warren,
I thought you had recently hired a writer to work up a PyMol
manual?
How is this going? Do you have a projected release date for the new
manual?
Thanks,
Scott
==============================================
Scott Classen, Ph.D.
clas...@uclink4.berkeley.edu
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Molecular & Cell Biology
237 Hildebrand Hall #3206
Berkeley, CA 94720-3206
LAB 510.643.9491
FAX 510.643.9290
==============================================
