Chris,
I don't think it's very time/quality
productive for someone who's passed that "aha" moment
to produce this documentation; at least not without
the aid of an "uninitiated".
I'd agree with that all the way. You need a dummy to ask where the keys
are and an expert to show him the way.
That's why I'm deliberately standing here on the tarmac complaining that
I can't find the door.
Trouble is that, in expert communities like this, normal protocol is to
give the dummy an RTFM to help kick him off down the road to learning to
become an engineer.
I'm not saying that's happened here. Far from it. This group is an
exception. I've been surprised nobody has yet shown me the door (as in
exit, not cockpit ;)
But this is why I've been saying from the very beginning that we need a
real users group. Where dummy questions are welcomed, not just tolerated.
If you'd like to be that test subject, I'm sure there
are a mess of people, including myself, that would be
willing to help explain things to you as you make your
way through the concepts, documenting as you go.
Pleased to hear it :) Like I said. This group seems to be the exception,
not the rule.
But
the POV of the documentation cannot be from someone
who's already gotten the bird off the ground, because
they're not really sure which button they pressed to
make it all seem second nature.
Very, very true. Which brings us back to your first question,
While I certainly enjoy the analogies, who are you
ultimately suggesting create these lowest common
denominator (LCD) documents?
To begin with I thought that might be me. Now I'm not so sure.
I'd love to do it but...
Look. I have to be honest. Don't want to promise anything I can't
deliver. I'm on oldy. Brought up in the 50s. Already half shagged out.
Can't do 18 hour days anymore. I'm finding dealing with the emails
difficult enough. They leave my head spinning. I need frequent lie downs :-\
My plan would be to clear the space for it to happen. A blank page with
only one mission. To put absolutely nothing there that isn't necessary,
remove every possible obstacle in the way.
We are in the age of Web 2.0 and user-generated content.
Clearing the brush from the landing strip is not such a huge undertaking.
Letting it be know all visitors are welcome not such an expensive
message to convey.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
They will arrive.
When they do, they'll tell you what they need.
Just try stopping them :)
Ian
--- Ian McNulty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
David,
I don't get the proposition that there are 100
different pilot roles.
There are many 1,000s of different destinations.
Maybe more than a
dozen different pilot roles (commercial, fighter,
bomber, spotter,
etc.). But but there IS a lowest common denominator.
They all fly
planes. They all start off on fixed wing, single
engine props. They all
need to understand basic navigation, aerodynamics,
flight-engineering etc.
But it is very basic. The need to understand lift,
drag, how to
calculate take off velocities etc. But I doubt if
they start of with 3D
vector calculus or need to know what a Reynold's
number is.
So why can't the target be whatever denominators are
common to all pilots?
How to find the door handle and the start button
would be top of my
list. If they can't find those then they ain't never
gonna fly.
Ian
David E. Jones wrote:
On Jan 20, 2007, at 1:25 AM, Ian McNulty wrote:
David,
I can see where you're coming from on this. This
project is better
documented than anything else I've seen in the
field.You yourself
have produced a truly awesome amount of
documentation. I don't know
where you find the time. All are extremely well
written, very clear,
very well laid out. A model of their kind. (No
I'm not sucking up - I
mean it :) So what could possibly be the problem.
I found the Introduction Videos and Diagrams page
you link to here a
couple of days ago myself.
It was whilst working through these videos that
the light bulb went off.
What you're talking us through is a diagram of
the wiring harness of
a jumbo jet.
Essential for the engineers who need to service
it.
Absolutely the last kind of map a pilot wants to
find on his lap.
Know what I mean?
Uh, yeah, that's because it is meant to cover the
framework, not the
applications. The two are very different, change
very differently,
need to be understood by different people in
different ways, etc. My
current estimate is that to produce something
adequate for a "pilot",
given that there are about 100 different "pilot"
roles in OFBiz, would
require many times the effort to produce that the
framework videos
with their diagrams, reference materials,
transcriptions, etc. Right
now I don't have the $500k to get into that... and
the $40k already
spent on the documents which are now PDF-dumped
into the
docs.ofbiz.org site was clearly inadequate,
especially as it is mostly
reference materials (which is why you won't find
how-to stuff in the
reference guides, they are references after all,
just for reference
purposes). The Application Overview for Users is
probably more of what
you're looking for, though that section only
represents maybe 3-5% of
what is in OFBiz right now.
Of course, that's assuming such documents could
even be written in a
way that is close to generally useful. How do I
use it? Well, that
depends on what you want to do... and
unfortunately across a few
different industries that list grows into hundreds
of thousands of
activities...
So, that's the big question with any document: who
is the target
audience? The more specific the answer, the better
the document will
address their needs. But who is the target
audience for OFBiz? ... ?
-David
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