[sword-devel] Re: Considering write-up on "Getting Started as BibleCS volunteer"

[Hastings]

  Lynn Allan wrote:
>...If so, am I misinformed that twiki is now used so little that it
>is effectively counterproductive in that it often/mostly seems to convey
>obsolete, inaccurate information?...

I don't feel that I am the best person to answer most of your points in 
detail, but I have a little to say about this one.

There has always been a lot of pressure to take TSP (The SWORD Project) to 
the next level quickly, whatever level that has been at the time. 
Documentation has been somewhat sacrificed for faster development. I think 
that is one reason that in general TSP documentation has been obsolete, 
inaccurate and lacking. Another reason is that key standards and methods, 
even where to find documentation, have not been stable. (Hopefully, OSIS 
will stabilize soon and some changes to versification will not be too 
painful.) I suspect that until that next level comes and until things 
stabilize, developers are going to spend their time mostly developing and 
not so much documenting. This means that there is a job of documenting that 
is waiting for the right volunteer(s). As with other development tasks 
here, you state your intentions and if no one objects you just do it. So, 
if you have a great interest in documentation then it may be a job for you. 
If you are only interested in other areas of development you maybe wasting 
time on this topic unless the right volunteer just happens to come forward 
after reading this thread.

FWIW: I did most of the development on the help files for users in BibleCS. 
At one time I figured I would do other documentation also, and even started 
documenting CVS when it was added, but someone else beat me to it. As it 
turned out I just don't have much time any more, and never got to 
documenting anything else. I have considered putting the pages from the 
help files up on twiki but I know nothing about twiki, and have not gotten 
around to looking into it.

I think it would be good if things like what you are wanting and files like 
those in the help files were placed in a way that would make team work on 
them more practical. It would be very good if it were setup before work on 
BibleCS 2.0 gets going.

Just my opinion.
Jerry

cc to Tom, who expressed an interest in technical writing.