Re: documentation discussion (was: Re: [mv] IF tag: [if session login] doesn't work?)

[David Gindelberger <davidgindelberger@yahoo.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from David Gindelberger <davidgindelberger@yahoo.com>     ******

I love the database idea.  I was thinking of proposing
a site running (what else) but MV.  We could allow
subscribers of the mailing list add examples and
recommend revisions, and put in "tips and tricks". 
Kinda like real-time "open source" docs.  I don't know
if this has been tried before, and may be difficult to
manage.  I can look into hosting it myself if this
sounds interesting, or if somebody has bandwith to
spare?

Dave

--- Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com> wrote:
> ******    message to minivend-users from Mark
> Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>     ******
> 
> 
> > In many of the list postings, in which people
> complain about not having
> > information, it often turns out that they do have
> it (in the docs, FAQ, Tag
> > Ref, etc), they are just not FINDING it, because
> they are not looking in
> > the right place - which is often not the most
> obvious place.  I usually
> > have to look in more than one spot to find the
> explanation or example I
> > need.  Sometimes I do a text search of the entire
> docs to find all
> > instances of a term or phrase.
> > 
> > So how about doing the docs as a Minivend
> database, with search pages,
> > cross-referencing links, categorization, etc.? 
> Distributed with Minivend
> > as part of the demo catalog(s).  Maybe a change in
> presentation would make
> > them more useful and effective.  Some parts would
> have to be rewritten to
> > be more modular and less of an "essay", but much
> of the content is easily
> > adapted right now.
> > 
> 
> Ed, I have a similiar experience. I find a full text
> search for a term
> is often the best way to find what I want in the
> docs, although
> sometimes I don't always pick the best term to use.
> :) I agree that some
> restructuring of the current docs is a good idea,
> but I'm unsure of the
> best way to go about it. Perhaps a database would be
> the best idea. That
> could potentionally make it easy for people to
> submit changes additions
> through a form like:
> 
> Name:
> Usage:
> Description:
> Example 1:
> Example 2:
> ...
> Example n:
> 
> (I like examples. :) 
> 
> I know that the "tags" area of the documentation has
> a mechanized
> format, so that might be a good starting point for a
> database
> conversion. 
> 
>     -mark
> 
>  
>
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