[ic] Pee-Poor Documentation Rant

[Dog Tags]

Hi All

I can see two types of documentation:

1. Developers - the true heart and soul of IC

2. Admins/Installers/other folks below the developer level who need to implement Interchange applications for various things

What I mean is that the current docs really go toward the developers. Trying to read AND IMPLEMENT such headings as Database, Tags, Templates, Config, Advanced reminds me of what Alec Baldwin's character in "Beetlejuice" said when he first described the Book of The Dead (or whatever it was called). He said it was like reading "stereo instructions", meaning that the content was so dense that you already had to know the subject matter before it made any sense.

What has been going through my mind is doing a rewrite of sorts to address more of the "application" topics that the next level down of users really focuses on. There would be tons of copy-and-paste example of "fully" worked out solutions, not just parts of code or partial concepts that still leave a few newbie questions hanging. This would be a kind of A-B-C approach and, I think, would be the answer for many, many users of IC who do not have the programming capability that the develpers have BUT who are capable enough to implement Interchange if enough things are worked out. For example, my headings would be something like (believe me, this is very rough and is only a sample):

1. Using and Creating Forms
2. Secure Transactions
3. Saving Data to external db's, including flatfiles
4. Adding Pages
5. How to Add/Modify/Delete Items using UI
6. How to Add/Modify/Delete Cats and Subcats
7. How to use encryption
8. Lots more stuff I can't think of right now because I just got back from the beach... :-))

You get the idea. Create a set of Application Docs for such needs as Ecommerce, Intranets, Auctions, and other stuff.

Well, that's it for now. I hope this idea seems a good one.

Ciao
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