Bitching about the documentation...

[Steve Holden]

BartlebyScrivener wrote:
>>>Let me repeat this for the umpteenth time: You do not have to learn LaTeX to
> 
> contribute to docs. <<
> 
> Noted. And thanks again to all who responded. The tone of this whole
> thing is really antagonistic in parts, which is unfortunate. I'll offer
> my services through the proper channels, because I appreciate the
> generosity of those who share their programming knowledge. In the
> meantime, I think perhaps Bengt Richter's post is probably the most
> constructive.
> 
> Meanwhile, if you have to keep repeating things for the umpteenth time
> then it MIGHT be because the way it is laid out or organized is making
> it difficult for the person seeking to VOLUNTEER to help. And we come
> full circle to documentation.
> 
> Why do people continue getting the impression that they need to learn
> LaTex to submit documentation?  A writer would look to his text. A
> programmer would probably just accuse his audience of being obtuse.
> 
> rpd
> www.dooling.com
> 

I'd like to suggest that since you aren't by any means the first person 
to form the impression that Latex knowledge is required, we probably 
*should* be making more effort to publicise the acceptability of plain 
text patches to the documentation.

Thanks for persisting long enough to get to this point: it would be 
unfortunate to lose potential contributions simply because of an 
inadequacy in the documentation. We definitely need to lose the 
antagonistic tone, but I do know from experience that there are whiners 
who, unlike you, aren't really prepared to do much to help.

As a small start I've edited

   http://www.python.org/dev/doc/

and if you can think of other changes that will get Fred and Skip more 
help on the documentation I'll try to make those too.

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden       +44 150 684 7255  +1 800 494 3119
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PyCon TX 2006                  www.python.org/pycon/