Interdependent Web

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session details: Documentation is Hot!

video by Chris Rowe

If anyone has suggestions for how to make documentation sound actually sexy, they are welcome!

• What are docs? 
  
  • Drupal Handbook
  • API site pulls from "doc blocks" of comment in code
  • help screens provided by modules (also in code)
    
• Being a team
  • everybody with a drupal.org account can now edit the Handbook!  (revisions are enabled)
    
  • credit for editing will now be chronological instead of alphabetical
  • there are still some elevated permissions, for rolling back revisions, etc.
• Accomplishments
  • handbook has gotten much better
  • reorganized the theme guide for D6
    
• The Road Ahead
  • new help system with useful help stored in HTML files in a folder called help
  • downloadable Getting Started Guide, etc. in modules
  • utilize tagging and views to provide multiple ways of organizing the docs, instead of just Book module
  • ability to flag forum posts/comments for inclusion in the docs
    
  • CVS versioning for online docs so sites can be synced
  • Goal: D7 should ship with full documentation, instead of 6 months after like D6
  • teach people that making patches is not so hard
  • internationalization
  • redesign of drupal.org includes new documentation landing page
  • lots of sprints! all the cool kids are doing it! combine with your DrupalCamps! funded by Knight Foundation!
    
  • newbies are encouraged to help!  Read the docs and make notes!  See if the how-tos work!
  • how about some screenshots and videos in the docs?  Well, currently you have to be a doc admin to upload files...
  • Let's make it less of a pain in the ass!  We have 4400 pages of docs!
• Getting to work
  • click edit and make a change! it's much easier to edit info that's there than to find info you haven't got!
  • look in the issue queue for ideas
    
  • come to the doc sprint on Saturday!