Hi,
> There are definitely people outside, who are not only still
> running 1.2.x sites, but even installing them (on FreeBSD, for
> instance, where someone had quite some problems getting 1.4
> compiling and not the time to track those down).
Excellent point, so we keep those instructions available but the real
problem is that we've thus far failed to produce an exceptable
installation. I doubt there's any argument for 1.2 rather than
1.4 beyond installation concerns. Keep the 1.2 install guide and we've put
a bandaid on cancer, fix the installation issues and we go to the real
problem.
All easier said than done. :)
> > The Midgard 1.4 manual belongs in Commentext where users and
> > developers can submit edits and additions. A non-MPRy decision
> > was made, during a meeting with developers employed by Aurora,
> > to not allow anyone to edit another person's documents. IMO,
> > this goes exactly opposite of MPRy's interests, the spirit of
> > Open Source, and the needs of our community.
>
> Well, IMHO every document (or topic, or any meaningful part of
> the whole thing) should have his owner(s) who is/are the only
> one(s) to edit it.
Well, my opinions aren't humble and they're based on experience and a fair
amount of observation. No apologies will be offered.
What about Marius' rewrite of Azman's installation guide? If we adobt your
proposal, MPRy is hostage to Azman and there is no rewritten installation
guide. OK, now apply this to all Midgard 1.4 documentation. IMO, we've got
a hell of a problem on our hands. These problem will surface as Midgard
gains popularity and all our arguments will go through another round of
debates.
What about Armand's rewrite of the function reference?
What if I want to rewrite the Repligard section of the Midgard 1.4 manual?
I don't see another solution to keep a
> consistent and good writing style throughout the whole manual.
Your proposal does nothing to assure good writing. In fact, if the writer
isn't good, it assures consistent bad writing.
While the Midgard 1.4 documents are a good start, that's all they are. I
don't think you can show me one topic that can't be improved. Your
proposal assures that we'll be stuck with those documents as they're until
someone replaces them.
Commentext provides versioning and gives the reader the choice of
selecting what version they want to read: A; Azman's or B; Marius'. Should
Azman decide to incorporate Marius' rewrite, then that edited version can
be marked as the default.
The least important people in these scenarios are the writers and editors.
The people that matter most are the readers and with Commentext, the
reader decides what version to examine.
> One of the task of those editors would then be to revise and
> include the annotations, which could be displayed as comments or
> replies (in commentext) until one of the editors has time.
The only person who can be an editor is the writer?
Hemingway and Twain were Associated Press news reporters long before they
became novelists. They were highly trained in a style of writing and their
skills were developed with many years of effort. Every sentence they
produced, was edited by an editor. The same held true when they produced
their novels.
I have examined the Midgard documentation effort for fair amount of time.
We're typical of most Open Source projects. We suffer from a lack of
quality documentation. Open Source documentation is largely a lip service
topic. Not many people really want to work on it. Those who do are overly
protective of their work because they're inexperienced. They're more concerned
with themselves than they're with the larger issue of contributing towards
producing the best possible product. Commentext is the only solution I've
seen that addresses the problem.
Anyway, I've stated some rather sharp opinions. I believe that I am
correct and didn't form my opinions as a knee jerk reaction to my
experiences within Midgard.
Ron
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