[Discuss-gnuradio] a call for a better wiki

[George Nychis]

Hi all,

The more I look at our wiki, the more of a problem I think there is. 
Yes, I understand WE are the creators of the wiki since it's shared, but 
I think that it could really use an overhaul with some guidance.

The common argument is that the code is documented, I think this is a 
good argument in some situations, but there is an overall lack of high 
level documentation.  For instance, what tools are there for spectrum 
analysis?  How can you simulate the channel?  What is GNU Radio + USRP's 
bandwidth?  How can you use octave with GNU Radio?  What PHY layers are 
there?  What applications are there?

I think that Firas' attempt to better build a manual for the code is 
great, but GNU Radio is still lacking high level documentation.  If 
you're not looking to build a new block, and you're not looking to 
install GNU Radio, you're going to have to dig through a massive source 
tree or ask on the list.  This is why we get the same questions over and 
over where we provide answers like "look at benchmark_tx.py" or "there's 
a ton of examples in the code."  Yes, there are a ton of examples, but 
the size of the branch makes it very difficult for someone new to find 
appropriate examples.

We get tons of "new to GNU Radio, where to start?" questions on the 
mailing list because of this I think.  They've obviously found the wiki 
since the links to the mailing list are on there.  The guides on the 
wiki are a bit daunting.

Thoughts?  I'd be willing to work on a new front page design on a wiki 
subpage, that if we like we can continue to build upon and eventually 
overwrite the current front page.

Then, as we get questions to the list we realize what kind of 
documentation we're missing.  And instead of always repeating ourselves 
on the list, it might be helpful to write the answer somewhere in the 
wiki and then respond with that wiki link.  It would seriously help 
build the wiki.

- George