[Sussex] Re: Documentation helping

[Nic James Ferrier]

linux at oneandoneis2.org writes:

> Quoting Nic James Ferrier <nferrier at tapsellferrier.co.uk>:
>
>> Speaking as a techy (oh no! I'm going all arrogant again) I find it
>> really hard to imagine audience. It's much easier if you've got people
>> who can give you feedback and say "I don't understand that".
>
> And this is why Linux users should keep a blog on which they record  
> the problems they have and (hopefully) how they solved them.  
> Especially the total newcomers, who are in a better position than  
> anybody else to know how to explain things to a total newcomer.

Not always.

It's a good idea but I wasn't suggesting that everyone should become a
linux documenter. I don't think most people are interested in doing
that, or have the skills to that (necessitating learning the skills if
that's what needs to happen).

But everyone who has had a hard time understanding documentation *is*
in a position to say to the author "hey! I didn't understand your doc
because you didn't mention that I had to have some specific version of
THING first." or whatever.

Spending a bit of time talking through your problems with the authors
of doc is probably going to be very worthwhile.

Except when it's as badly broken as CUPS which is trying to document a
nightmare frankly.


-- 
Nic Ferrier
http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk