12 Aug
2004
12 Aug
'04
9:13 p.m.
On Thu, 2004-08-12 at 17:05, Lee Revell wrote:
What is needed is for non-coders who understand the
apps to write the
documentation, "power users" in the Windows-speak (I always hated the
term). The developers are glad to help you if you have a question like
"I am writing some docs for $FOO, why does it do $BAR, and what is the
$BAZ menu for?". This is a great way for non-coders to contribute to
open source.
The problem is there are a lot more people willing to write code for
free than write user documentation for free. Many developers are not
native English speakers, so in many cases it is much harder to write
good English user docs than write code! Developer documentation is much
easier because there is already a common language.
If you are a user willing to contribute documentation, the developers
will bend over backwards to help you, because good user documentation
equals fewer spurious bug reports and happier users.
Lee
Amen.
Jan