I think this is a good suggestion. What might be better is to us text
like:
Verified on XWiki versions: 0.9.840
That way, if others confirm it for a new version, they can just add that
version to the list. Also - some people would not know whether it works on
one version over another because they may only be familiar with one
version. In this way, the wiki approach to information sharing,
validation, etc. might be used to good effect.
==================================
Cody Burleson
IBM, Business Consulting Services
On Demand Workplaces
"Simplifying access to content, applications, people and processes."
Current Client Office (Mon - Thur): (404) 828-4583
Home Office [Friday, Sat. Sun. or email a voice message]: (214) 233.3546
Cell [anytime]: (214) 537-8783
Email: cburleso(a)us.ibm.com
"Stephen Schaub" <stephen_schaub_88(a)hotmail.com>
09/27/2005 03:07 PM
Please respond to
xwiki-dev(a)objectweb.org
To
xwiki-dev(a)objectweb.org
cc
Subject
RE: [xwiki-dev] This month is DOC month
Cody,
It's great to see some focus on XWiki documentation. Thanks for taking the
lead on this.
Since XWiki is constantly evolving, one of the challenges of documenting
it
is the "moving target" phenomenon. Say you document the XWiki permissions
UI. Then a new version is released, and the permissions UI changes. For a
time (perhaps a very long time), the documentation is out of sync with the
current released version. This will cause end-user confusion and
frustration, and it's an example of how out-of-date documentation can be
worse than no documentation at all. Other examples include users running
old
versions of XWiki, looking at a documentation page that describes how a
particular feature works in the current released version, and experiencing
confusion.
To help address these challenges, I suggest affixing a message at the top
of
each documentation page, like this:
For XWiki version: 0.9.840+
As new versions of XWiki are released, the documentation team can review
each documentation page and determine whether the material is out of date.
If the new version differs substantially in its behavior, the message
could
be changed to:
For XWiki version: 0.9.840 - 0.9.970
where 0.9.970 is the last version that the page accurately documents. This
will help readers to know whether the page accurately documents the
version
of XWiki they're using.
Eventually, the page will be revised to reflect the new functionality, but
users running old versions of the XWiki software still need a way to view
the documentation for their version. To deal with this, the documentation
could provide a link to to the older version of the page. Something like
this:
For XWiki version: 0.9.975
See also: <link>XWiki 0.9.840 - 0.9.970</link>
Thoughts?
Stephen
From: Cody Burleson <cburleso(a)us.ibm.com>
Reply-To: xwiki-dev(a)objectweb.org
To: xwiki-dev(a)objectweb.org
Subject: [xwiki-dev] This month is DOC month - I'll take a lead.
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 00:45:26 -0400
[snip]
My goal over the coming month is to play a strong role in transforming
the
User Guide and Administrator Guide. To achieve this
goal, I pledge to
work
on documentation a little bit each day. Afterwards, I
will probably roll
into the usability and user interface focus. Until then, i hope you will
accept me as a workhorse for you. Here's how you can help me (and the
XWiki evolution):
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