On 11/22/2016 12:00 AM, kamaraju kusumanchi wrote:
On Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 9:13 AM, Richard Owlett <rowl...@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
