[ic] Major changes to DEVEL CVS branch

[Paul Jordan]

> Mike Heins wrote:
> > Quoting Chris Tooley (christ@ntrc.net):
> >
> >>On Mon, 2003-01-13 at 20:06, Mike Heins wrote:
> --snip--
> >>As it appears that 5.0 will be not only
> >>a major backend change and but also a major shift in UI.  Has this been
> >>looked into recently?
> >
> >
> > The thing I am really interested in is some better online help. There is
> > now a built-in online help editor, but I doubt anyone except a couple of
> > people (one of whom is me) will actually take the time to contribute
> > back changes if past behavior is any indication.
> >
> > I would love to be wrong on these assumptions... 8-)
>
> Mike ... Once IC 5 is released we are planning a big upgrade to
> our companies
> internal interchange support systems. As part of this we are
> planning on going
> through the IC online help and updating the existing sections,
> adding in new
> sections etc. As usual, we will probably go to work on the visual
> design and
> layout of it as well. :-) My hope is that the work we do here
> will be able to be
> integrated into IC and will be of benefit to the rest of the community.

Hi

David (I have seen 5.0 David, really looks great, you guys did a great job
on the html)

Now, for this topic...

What about building a tool to contribute right from ADMIN, where most of us
are all day anyways. Some sort of questionnaire (or form) that emails
directly to the devgroup, and gets databased, code only, no questions.

We could submit snippets, links to [strip] tagged content, whole pages,
helptips (for integration into backend/frontend covering demo/advanced
functions), etc.

All I have to say is, out of sight, out of mind. One could post interesting
code, or a link to [strip] tagged content in under 60 seconds by hitting the
"contribute" tab in admin. As hectic as all our lives are, I am less likely
to search out a good home (Archives, Docs, RTFM, Forum, Wiki) for said
snippet, log in, cut, paste, explain... Alot of times I have something cool,
but don't think it is worth crowding 10000 inboxes. When I have something
cool, the world does not stop, and my credit card debt does not pause for
nobody, so I am off to the next todo item.

I have been doing taxes, so I have not seen the Wiki, but I most likely am
not going to spend 6 hours in the Wiki, however most of us are in our ADMIN
most of the day. Alot of us are not Interchange developers, simply people
trying to make their store in IC, so the urge to stop what you are doing,
venture out to somewhere else, log it, etc is not *as viable.

The contribute would not be for questions, so it would "archive" pure big
juicy code, snippets, helptips, etc, so we would not have to wade through
questions and quoted replies. Maybe the Wiki could be used to search these,
and/or edit these.

If you are to empower people, you must do it where they are, not where you
want them to be.

Paul

BTW, I am not criticizing, just posting an idea.