Documentation for the 2.4 release

[Thomas Bullock]

Hi Geert,

Sorry to be slow in responding.

I have been thinking about your remarks.  I am comfortable making a draft of such documentation.  But to do that I do need a list of features that are new to 2.4.  I figure once I could put words to the features, developers involved in creating the features could react to the draft by pointing out what I got wrong or what was omitted and should be included.

So far I am acquainted only with GC 2.2.9 and have not attempted to install 2.3.15.  So you can see I am the least likely person to be writing the documentation.  Up to now there seems to be no one else, so I am proposing the above just to get something started.  This would be my contribution to the idea you propose for a formalized documentation update process.

I would also like to suggest that once the 2.4 release is actually released, the developers help focus on at least the initial draft of this documentation.  There should be install instructions (if needed) as well as the general overview and database specific commentary.

Once that would be prepared, user questions would quickly disclose what had been omitted.  When that round of development had been completed, then there would be time for adding new features beyond 2.4.

Do these thoughts resonate as a way to get started?

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Geert Janssens [mailto:janssens-geert at telenet.be]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 10:35 AM
> To: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> Cc: Thomas Bullock
> Subject: Re: Documentation for the 2.4 release
> 
> On Monday 4 October 2010, Thomas Bullock wrote:
> > Developers,
> >
> > What plans are you making for the documentation when the 2.4 release
> become
> >  official?
> >
> Hi Thomas,
> 
> The silence you get as an answer already hints that there is not really
> a
> plan... at least I don't know of a formal one myself.
> 
> I wonder if it would be useful to have some more formalized
> documentation
> update process, which includes calling on interested writers when
> GnuCash is
> stabilizing.
> 
> > Due to it having the use of 3 types of databases, it seems to me that
> would
> >  entail a significant documentation update involving a general
> description
> >  of how GC would then work and specific sets of instructions for
> using each
> >  of the 3 data bases.  And I suppose there could  be impacts on how
> reports
> >  are prepared by GC.
> >
> > Am I thinking along the right lines?  If so, when would those
> enhancements
> >  be written and incorporated into the current Guide and Help manuals?
> >
> All of the above suggestions would be very good additions to the
> GnuCash
> documentation.
> 
> As to when ? Now would be a good moment. As far as I can tell, most
> developers
> are focussing right now on squashing the last remaining blocker bugs to
> get
> 2.4 ready. There are no new features planned anymore until the stable
> release
> and I expect no or only very small interface changes until that time as
> well.
> 
> Which means that GnuCash as you can play with in 2.3.15 minus some
> internal
> bugs will be what you get in 2.4 and hence can be used as a reference
> to
> update the documentation.
> 
> In any casy, I hereby invite everyone with some writing skills and some
> time
> on his hands to join us in updating the documentation with the latest
> and
> greatest new features that have been added in the 2.3.x development
> cycle. ;)
> 
> I'll try to contibute my part if and when I find some time. The next
> couple of
> weeks will be very busy for me outside of GnuCash...
> 
> Geert