[ic] Pee-Poor Documentation Rant

[Jess Van Tassell]

>
>I don't think the problem is the documentation, but the background that
>people bring with them.  It's always easier to blame it on someone else.
>
>Perhaps a listing of background one should have vs what one can do:
>
>
>Your experience                    What you can do
>sysadmin, lots of *NIX and perl    anything you want
>
>... stuff in the middle
>
>what's telnet/ssh                  complain
>
>
>Even if such a chart were purely anecdotal it would be useful to keep
>people from getting in over their heads.  And fun to read too.  :-)
>
>BOFH sez maybe about line 10 of makecat should be:
>
>exit 1; # if you find this, comment it out and proceed.
>
>;^>
>

Ouch! you're harsh!

I suggested this awhile back, but I think my post was too
long and nobody read it. Before people download interchange,
they probably read the "case study for open source ecommerce"
and of course they read the system requirements stats. Along with
those, perhaps basic knowlege of linux, perl, apache, html, the
database the user will implement on, as well as sendmail and
DNS should be recommended. That's known as a good fair
warning!

Many people think this package is an install-and-use nobrainer,
and approach it as such from a windows background. It would be
good to give them a little heads up as to what they're getting into.
RedHat presents Interchange as turnkey, when it's not. Well,
it is. But not if you want to alter the catalog any. And if you're not
selling hammers and paintbrushes, you'll probably want to change it.
Ecommerce is full of people who can't tell perl from the knitting
stitch their grandmother uses, but want to participate in the
success of online business.

A google search for "interchange documentation" brings
up plenty of information. I had no trouble finding documentation
on RedHat's site, despite it being in the 'documentation' section ;->
My problem has mainly been interpreting the Swahili they use
to document ICTags, since I'm not a perl guru myself. Again,
that's my problem, not Interchange's.

blue skies,
-Jess Van Tassell
Virtual Horizons




>--
>
>Christopher F. Miller, Publisher                               cfm@maine.com
>MaineStreet Communications, Inc           208 Portland Road, Gray, ME  04039
>1.207.657.5078                                         http://www.maine.com/
>Content/site management, online commerce, internet integration, Debian linux
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