Posted by
davidnwelton on
Mar 30, 2006; 8:49am
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Users-Updated-documentation-tp138178p138184.html
On 3/29/06, David E. Jones <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> This does bring up an interesting discussion point: how should we manage end-user oriented documentation (and other documentation too...)?
>
> Notice that I did _not_ ask what would everyone like to see in the documentation... that is a moot point without a way to go about getting it in place. I'd rather not talk about that as it has been discussed quite a bit, it confuses the point of how to get things done and who will do them, and often leads to blaming those who have contributed to OFBiz for not contributing even more.
I suggested including this documentation because:
1) It exists.
2) It's helpful.
3) The author is willing to release it under a suitable license.
Perhaps it's not perfect, but it seems like a reasonable guide to
doing basic things in OFBiz, which is a good starting point for
anyone, whether they intend to hack things at a low level or not.
The idea is to take what exists and run with it, rather than spend too
much time worrying about how things ought to be. Perhaps you can even
manage to rope Ian into doing more documentation?:-)
I realize there is some complexity in the situation... A successful
strategy for other open source projects has been to have basic
reference manuals that are free, and then people write books for those
who want more handholding/a more expository approach. The problem, of
course, is bootstrapping things to the point where there is interest
in the book... hopefully moving to the ASF will help with that, but I
also think that some basic docs like Ian's wouldn't hurt, for people
approaching the system for the first time - perhaps they would help
'capture' a larger portion of people investigating OFBiz, with the
accompanying virtuous circle that that entails if some of those
people, in turn, contribute back in some way.
In any case, just an idea...
--
David N. Welton
-
http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/Linux, Open Source Consulting
-
http://www.dedasys.com/
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