Documentation: open user invitation to help out

[Geert Janssens]

On Tuesday 6 July 2010, Thomas Bullock wrote:
> [<<Tom>>: ] Geert, you said:
> 
> Here are some examples of how you can help out:
> 
> 1. You had a particular question that wasn't addressed in the
>  documentation. You did manage to solve your question, either by yourself
>  (clever you !) or with some help on the mailing list or irc channel.
> 
> How to help:
> -> Write down what your question was and what the solution was, in a form
>  that can be understood easily by others that might have the same question.
>  -> Submit your write-up to the user mailing list, and I'll gladly add it
>  to the gnucash wiki [1] or documentation, depending on where it fits best.
>  If you send it to the list, put something like "GnuCash tip" or something
>  in the subject, that makes it easier to recognize.
> 
> -> Or if you want to help a little more, write your question and solution
>  in the gnucash wiki yourself. That costs you a little more time and saves
>  me a little more.
> 
> 2. If you like, you can also help us manage the wiki [1]: improve/update
>  its contents and structure, add new contents, extract solutions from
>  mailing list discussions and put them in the wiki,... You can spend as
>  little or as much time on this as you like.
> 
> 3. Or if you feel even more engaged, you can also help us improve/complete
>  the Concepts guide [2] and GnuCash manual [3]. There are large parts of
>  new functionality that are not or poorly documented (reporting is one of
>  them, business functions another,...). You don't need coding skills for
>  this, just time and preferably some writing skills.
> 
> 
> [<<Tom>>: ] thanks for the invitation and the clear summary of ways to get
>  started.
> 
> I have wanted to work on item 3 and am currently finding it difficult
>  because I have found little specific instructions on the mechanics of the
>  process used to actually change or add something to the existing
>  documentation.  Yes, I am aware of the information at
>  http://www.gnucash.org/docs.phtml, the GnuCash Documentation project.  For
>  my needs that is too general.  I am too new to linux and GnuCash to have
>  experience on the many fronts needed to be work on something substantive. 
>  The advice I received not too long ago has been to:
> 
> 	"Pull out the gnucash-docs from Subversion.  Edit them.  Then run "svn
>  diff" to pull up a patch."
> 
> I get the general idea from the above, but I have not much idea at all
>  about the "how-to" steps to make these instructions result in something to
>  submit to the developers' list.
> 
> If we had such a step-by-step description, then I think more users could
>  actually respond to the appeal for building current and clear
>  documentation on the parts not yet written.
> 
> If you can point me to a place to find what I need, I will be most
>  grateful.  Or if someone can guide me in the process, I will undertake to
>  write the instructions that I know would be helpful, at least to me.
> 
> As I see it, the first step is to find the specific web address referred to
>  as Subversion and then the way to find the right module(s) containing the
>  GnuCash-docs.  After that, the next thing is to "pull-out" the docs so
>  that they could be edited.
> 
> Any takers to give me guidance so I can do that much?
> 
> Tom
> 
Hi Tom,

Thanks for your offer to help improve the documentation. Maf. already helped 
you out with your first question.

Based on you feedback here, I decided to improve the documentation page of the 
website slightly. It now explicitly shows how to get the gnucash documentation 
source and how to create patches.

I hope this will help lower the barrier to documentation contributions.

Geert