Last Friday 13 August 2004 18:54, Pete Bessman was like:
At Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:16:30 +0100,
tim hall wrote:
Do you want some help writing the docs then?
YES!
Hell, ask any developer here that question and you'll get the same
answer. Docs are always appreciated. However, as I said before,
Specimen is getting a complete UI overhaul, so any docs you write now
probably won't be relevant in a month or so.
OK, I probably won't get round to doing anything for a month or so then ;)
I am *not* trying to look a gift horse in the mouth
here, but if you
*really* want to help I think I have a better idea.
Make some music (real music, finished stuff), and write docs on what
you had to do to make this music. Start from the beginning:
--What distro did you install, and on what hardware?
--What configuration steps did you need to perform?
Done this and made a start on docs
http://wiki.agnula.org
--What applications did you use, and how did you
install and configure
them?
Dave Phillips has already made a damn good start on this one too.
http://www.agnula.org/documentation/dp_tutorials/
I'm trying to figure out where the gaps are. No sense in duplicating effort.
The fact that you're on-list now saying YES! to documentation help makes me
think that Specimen deserves some attention.
--How did you use all these pieces to make music?
Fair point.
If there are any docs out there like this, I'm not
aware of them.
They would be an *immense* contribution, both by showing potential
users how they can make music with Linux, and by showing developers
the strengths and weaknesses of the scene as it currently is.
Speaking for myself, the first thing I look for when checking out
music apps is music created with said apps. What does it sound like?
The
linux-sound.org music page has only 24 entries, and I'm NOT
FLINGING MUD HERE (my own stuff sucks), but we're certainly not giving
any indication of the utility of our software with them. This is
because we have two many hackers and not enough UNIT-Es.
I do make music with this software, but I have so far only really produced
demos and test pieces, which aren't necessarily the best advert. I have
already contributed some stuff to
http://muzik.agnula.org
I firmly believe that the biggest, most valuable
contribution anybody
not currently wrapped up in a project can make to Linux audio is
making music with this stuff, and writing a few example docs to get
new users up to speed rapidly. If you, or anyone, or better yet,
*everyone* did this, our scene would be a magnificently better place.
You're on as soon as I've wrapped up some of my immediate projects.
cheers
tim hall