Anyways, near the end of November '07 I wondered idly how long it would take the KDE Techbase technical library wiki to hit 3 million page views after making it past 2 million. Well, that time came and went and the last 2.5 months there have been somewhere around 1.4 million page views bringing the total to date up over 3.5 million. I'm going to stop even reporting on that number because it's just going to get silly. "This week: another million!" ;)
So now we know that Techbase works otherwise people wouldn't keep coming back for more. That means ... we should invest more into the knowledge that is there. I'd like to propose a challenge for all of us KDE hackers:
By the end of 2008, Techbase will have an article for every major component in KDE's development platform
Audacious? Maybe ... we achieved the number of articles already there with far fewer people than are now using it, so I believe this is not only a possibility but a realistic goal. And really: we owe it to each other to document our stuff in a human friendly manner.
I don't think we need an article for every class in kdelibs, but we should aim for articles that cover the major concepts. We already have pretty good coverage of things like getting started, i18n, debugging, KConfig, plugins, D-Bus, Kross and more ... but a lot of the other topics are either just plain missing or only have basic intro materials.
If a reasonable fraction of us were to write even just one moderate length article (1-2 pages of text) per month, we'd make it with ease. This is also something that those learning the new technologies and frameworks can get into easily while providing a contribution that will have a long lasting and meaningful impact on the project.
Personally, I have set a goal to have all the Plasma articles written and ready for 4.1 (widgets intro and advanced, data and script engines, runners, architecture overview). Maybe I'll get to a few more articles covering stuff in kdelibs as well.
So here's the mantra: one a month to Techbase glory! ;)
(.. and yes, in Soviet Russia, Techbase writes you!)
7 comments:
I hope this goal is accomplished, techbase is already very helpful to average users like me. Another wiki is in dire need of help as well, the KDE wikipedia articles are behind. About 5-6 people (me included) have been working on them, but with so many KDE applications it isn't easy.
What about the KDE user guide and Help Center? will they eventually get somekind of wiki too?
Not to sound too bitchy but I just have one complaint about techbase: it usually requires scrolling before getting to any content (abstract, etc). Maybe some other style that would use all avaiable screen width would be more friendly. Or at least have the option to chose the style (and save it in a cookie, maybe).
That's a good goal ;)
I think I will try to translate a bit on TechBase (To Danish) - my old translations isn't updated more and is very bad :)
I like the idea of techbase but right now I don't like its design very much because it isn't very usable:
- The fonts are too small.
- The content area is too narrow and too far to the right.
- Why are the edit links of the headlines to the left of them? It makes it necessary to skip over them when reading the headline. To the right would be a better place, and in a less prominent colour and/or smaller font.
Well, if TechBase wants me, here's what it can do to make things easier for me:
Add a section about C++ basics, covering the following topics:
syntax, data types, variables, control structures, functions, the main function, classes, inheritance.
I can't write the tutorials myself, because I don't know C++ well enough, and the reason for that is that I've never found any easy, to-the-point tutorials.
TICPP is not exactly what I had in mind when thinking about learning to write KDE applications. It teaches a lot of important stuff, but I just want to get to the part where I start coding.
also, it would be nice if there was some way to download any part of the TechBase, store it locally, and sync it with the TechBase, all using some GUI app.
@mootchie: "What about the KDE user guide and Help Center?"
i'd love to see that as well. unfortunately i don't have more hours in the day myself nor an unending horde of slaves to do my bidding ;)
it would be completely possible for an interested group of users to start this though. i'd be happy to lend some guidance in the process if needed, though i wouldn't have much time to help with it...
maybe start a movement on the kde user's mailing list?
@yman: it's out of our scope to teach basic C++ syntax, etc. there are many good books out there on the topic already, no need to spend our limited time duplicating that work. there's also python, ruby and java too.
as for off-line, yes, that's one of my biggest wishes as well. it's something we may have a solution for this year, though =)
@Aaron:
Pity. Can you perhaps provide me with a reference to the kind of materials I specified?
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