On 11/22/2016 12:00 AM, kamaraju kusumanchi wrote:
On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 9:13 AM, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:There exist SOC <Summer of Code> projects to encourage/mentor fledgling programmers. Considering the state of documentation, esp man pages, why no SOD <Summer of Documentation> projects for potential tech writers. In many areas, nerds are considered illiterate. I can see SOD projects as a vehicle to encourage technically oriented teens to hone their composition skills. Attempting to edit existing man pages might be a good starting point. It would obviously require mentors with an atypical mixture of skill sets.One side note. IMHO man pages/info pages have a huge barrier of entry.
I agree. More so than I might have before I was pointed to projects aimed at improving man pages and their preparation.
You have to learn a new language to write one and that can be discouraging to some. Ideally, a documentation developer would just focus on the content and does not spend much time on the meta aspects of documentation (ex:- typesetting/formatting etc.,).
We agree. I was attempting to focus on a sub-set of the problem.SOC projects focus, by design, on developing skill sets tightly bound to the activity of programming.
I would see SOD as serving a much broader audience. [Side note I date from the era when the catch phrase "Why Johnny can't ..." was prevalent when discussing the state of education in the U.S.A.] I can see SOD projects at the Junior and Senior high school level motivating the writing skills of under performing but technology oriented students. I was [possibly still am a half century later] part of that audience.
From this aspect, a wiki is an ideal way to document something... but may be there are better tools out there that I am unaware of. thanks raju