[Top][All Lists]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
December Documentation Donation Drive
From: |
Graham Percival |
Subject: |
December Documentation Donation Drive |
Date: |
Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:28:53 -0800 |
User-agent: |
Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (X11/20071022) |
The Grand Documentation Project has been going for almost four months
now. I think that everybody agrees that it's a good thing and the docs
are much better. You can see it for yourself here:
http://web.uvic.ca/~gperciva/
As with all volunteer projects, interest waxes and wanes. People join,
people leave, and slowly work gets done. Most people send one update
each week, others send me five updates in two days and then nothing for
two weeks, and one person has sent me an update almost every day for the
past three months.
My role in GDP is strictly managerial. I give orders, I arbitrate
discussions, and I provide technical support. I don't do any of the
actual work myself[1]. (think of all those Dilbert jokes about bosses)
[1] ok, if there's a one-word fix, or a simple formatting problem, I'll
deal with it myself. But all *real* work is done by other people.
Currently there are three people working on the docs. Trevor Daniels is
rewriting the entire Learning Manual by himself. Eyolf Ostrem (sorry,
no funny characters from this keyboard :) is rewriting the entire NR
chapter 1 by himself (and will later tackle NR 2, 3, etc... by himself).
And Ralph Palmer is fixing small formatting issues in both manuals.
My hope was to have all of NR 1 finished by the end of 2007. That
obviously isn't going to happen. My current goal is to have a _first
draft_ of NR 1 by the end of the year... this might also not happen.
If you want to procrastinate your Christmas shopping (or "holiday
shopping", for anybody in the Politically-Correct USA), please consider
helping out with GDP. Get in touch with me, look at the TODO lists,
etc. If you have a preference for a particular job, great! If you
really have no preference at all, let me know and I'll simply assign
something to you -- I'm a bit reluctant to assign a job, since it's
always nicer to work on something that interests you. But if you really
have no preference, I can certainly assign tasks.
I give you this absolute guarantee: I will not demand that you do
anything you don't want to do. If you hate some task, just tell me and
I'll suggest something else for you to work on. If you're tired of
volunteering on the docs, just say so and walk away. You can quit
whenever you want, no questions asked. If you were involved in GDP
before and are considering joining again, the same applies: I thank you
for all your work, and I would gratefully accept any more volunteer effort.
Of course, the "I don't ask for anything more than you're willing to
give" rule applies to everybody else, too. There are huge TODO lists.
I'm not willing to do anything that's on a TODO list -- as I said, I
only supervise this project. ("just supervising" still eats up 10-15
hours a week. It's not like I'm slacking off here!) If nobody offers
to do a particular task, it will continue to sit on the TODO list. The
documentation will continue to have those flaws.
LilyPond is a volunteer project. The quality of our documentation -- or
bug reporting system, or website, or really anything -- is directly
related to the amount of effort people put into it.
Cheers,
- Graham Percival, LilyPond Documentation Editor
- December Documentation Donation Drive,
Graham Percival <=