SciPy Documentation Marathon 2008 Status Report We are now nearing the end of the summer. We have a ton of great docstrings, a nice PDF and HTML reference guide, a new package with pages on general topics like slicing, and a glossary. We had hoped to have all the numpy docstrings in first-draft form in time for the pre-fall (1.2) release. The actual number of pages was more than double our quick goal-setting assessment, so we won't make it. As of this moment, we have: status % pages Needs editing 52 430 Being written / Changed 27 226 Needs review 18 152 Needs review (revised) 0 1 Needs work (reviewed) 0 3 Reviewed (needs proof) 2 19 Proofed 0 0 Unimportant 1531 Our current status can always be seen at: http://sd-2116.dedibox.fr/pydocweb/stats/ Definitions of the categories are also on the wiki, but "being written" is our first-draft category. So, we're just shy of halfway there, and since the goal more than doubled, we can say we have not failed our expectations. But, we haven't succeeded, either, and we certainly haven't finished. So, this being a marathon, we're not going to stop! Please join us if you haven't already for the... PRE-CONFERENCE DOC BLITZ! We can, quite realistically, get up to 60% for numpy 1.2. We've had several 8% weeks this summer and we've got several weeks to go. Stefan will merge docstrings into the beta for 1.2 on 5 August, and will continue merging from the wiki for the release candidates and final cut. However, Writing has slowed to a crawl in recent weeks. Please pitch in to help those who are still writing so we can get to 60% by release 1.2. Looking further ahead, I hope all the volunteers will continue writing for the rest of the summer and fall, so that we can put 100% decent drafts into 1.3, and a 100% reviewed set of docstrings into 1.4. Then we can turn our attention to scipy. Enough stick, here's some carrot: This is the design for this year's documentation prize, a T-shirt in Robert Kern black, designed by Teresa Jeffcott: http://physics.ucf.edu/~jh/scipyshirt-2008-2.png We'll hand these out at SciPy '08 to anyone who has written 1000 words or more (according to the stats page) or who has made an equivalent contribution in other ways (reviewing, wiki creation, etc.; Stefan and I will judge). So far, 11 contributors qualify, but several more could easily reach that goal in time. In fact, several of our volunteer writers have produced 1000 words in one week. The offer remains good through the first-draft phase, though you'll need to act quickly to get your docs into 1.2 and be recognized at the conference! If you won't be at SciPy '08 or if you qualify later, we'll mail one to you. As always, further discussion belongs on the scipy-dev mailing list, as does your request to be added to the doc wiki editors group, so head over to the doc wiki main page, established an account there, and give us a shout! WTFM, --jh--