Chris, David, Everybody.
One last thought on the subject before I have my porridge and another
lie down ;)
I'm wondering if any of you guys have ever taken a good hard look at the
osCommerce, Zen Cart or Ubuntu forums?
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum
http://forums.oscommerce.com
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
Yes. I know php is nasty. But that's not the point.
Look at the accessibility and structure of the interface.
All user levels are accommodated.
All find their natural place.
Nearly a quarter of a million members on Ubuntu. 120K on osCommerce.
2,347 and 824 currently active respectively at this very moment as we speak
A working model of how to build a user base surely, if nothing else?
Ian
Chris Howe wrote:
Ian,
While I certainly enjoy the analogies, who are you
ultimately suggesting create these lowest common
denominator (LCD) documents?
As has already been mentioned, once you pass that
"aha" moment in OFBiz, it's difficult to understand
why the engineering documentation didn't make sense
the first time around. 3D vector calculus, as you put
it, seems so elementary obvious at that point that
it's difficult to convey it in simpler terms; even
though you remember it not being obvious when you
started. 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".
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. 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.
--- 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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