Help document Plone's API

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claytron () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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On May 27, 2009, at 7:34 AM, Mikko Ohtamaa wrote:

> <snip>
>
>> We have a proven, feature rich content managed solution on plone.org
>> that has existed much longer than Sphinx has. It has a review  
>> cycle. It
>> is accessible to people like JoAnna and Veda that I'm sure will not  
>> be
>> happy to manage our documentation via an svn client and an obscure  
>> plain
>> text markup.
>
> Developer manual writers are Python developers.  Developer manual
> readers are Python developers. They are quite familiar with tools like
> SVN and Sphinx. The problem is the integration part.
>
> "Developers hate to write documentation in Kupu":
> http://n2.nabble.com/Re%3A-If-core-code-is-undocumented-it%27s-broken-%28Was%3A-where-should-developer-documentation-go-%29-tp1511898p1565179.html

You don't *have* to use Kupu.  I personally do not care for WYSIWYG  
editors at all.  They usually hinder my writing by forcing me to  
figure out how to create the markup that I already know how to create.

I am a huge proponent of Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics 
), I think JoAnna is even coming around to liking it a little bit :)  
It has a very simple syntax and writing code blocks is dead simple,  
just indent four spaces, I love that!  I would rather promote creole  
since it aims to standardize plain text markup, but it has not gained  
much traction yet :(

That being said, it's not the magic solution to solve everything, it  
has it's issues as well.  But I think this could serve as a nice  
medium for developers and non-developers.

claytron
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Martin Aspeli () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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Mikko Ohtamaa wrote:

> As soon as you get up some kind of set up where I can add new pages
> (write access for everyone?) I am willing to start writing! :)

That's great!

Perhaps you'd like to get the ball rolling? You *did* start the tutorial
I'm proposing to rip off for this. :)

I think it's relatively easy: just create a ref manual with a structure
that mirrors the first two or three levels of the mind map. We can
always re-organise later.

Martin

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JoAnna Springsteen () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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> As soon as you get up some kind of set up where I can add new pages
> (write access for everyone?) I am willing to start writing! :)
>


We're testing our new PHC, which will allow for this, on Sat and Sun
this weekend. We're getting close!

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Mikko Ohtamaa () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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> We're testing our new PHC, which will allow for this, on Sat and Sun
> this weekend. We're getting close!

Ok thanks. I think I can hold my horses over the weekend. After that
I'll scrape the initial structure together if the thingy(tm) is
working.

-Mikko

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Martin Aspeli () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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Mikko Ohtamaa wrote:
>> We're testing our new PHC, which will allow for this, on Sat and Sun
>> this weekend. We're getting close!
>
> Ok thanks. I think I can hold my horses over the weekend. After that
> I'll scrape the initial structure together if the thingy(tm) is
> working.

You rock! :)

Martin

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want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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Dylan Jay-4 () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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On 27/05/2009, at 9:34 PM, Mikko Ohtamaa wrote:

> Developer manual writers are Python developers.  Developer manual
> readers are Python developers. They are quite familiar with tools like
> SVN and Sphinx. The problem is the integration part.
>>

Totally agree and would also add that during the last plone conference  
I ran a BOF session on gathering feedback on newbies find hard about  
Plone. One item was that code snippets often didn't work.
If there is a way to keep the documentation maintainable in plone, but  
testable at the same time then it could reduce the maintenance tasks  
of the documentation team. With regard to official API documentation,  
I personally think we should be pushing maintenance of this  
documentation as much towards the developers as possible. If they  
can't explain their changes they shouldn't be making them.

Martin Aspeli said...
>> I'm not interested in a debate to displace that. I'm even less
>> interested in fracturing our documentation into multiple sources that
>> can't be easily cross-referenced, searched or integrated in terms of
>> navigation and structure.

but what if we could have multiple sources that can be easily cross-
referenced, searched or integrated in terms navigation and structure?

As you say now is not the time to implement this, as it needs to well  
thought out, but the really useful part of sphinx is the ability to  
include elements from different sources and compile them into one  
document.
If someone does write a well maintained doctest for part of the plone  
core, and it fit's into the api manual, why rewrite it? If there was a  
feature in kupu where you could "insert>linked content" and we could  
get that content from the current plone code base, would it be such a  
mess? Personally I think that it core coders saw that some of their  
documentation was being exposed in an official manual it would lead  
them to raise their game and create even more useful doctests.

Another example is the experiments Rok Garbas did with sphinx last  
year where he blended written documentation with ATCT schema  
documentation generated from the actual schemas. I'm not saying  
generated documentation is always appropriate, just that  when it is,  
the result is more maintainable.

> This is totally correct. The result (content) is now more important
> than how it is done and I am pretty sure volunteers are happy to use
> Plone :)

+1 I will look though the mindmap after this weekend and pick some  
topics to contribute. This effort is long overdue and I applaud Martin  
for putting it back on the agenda.



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Dylan Jay-4 () Re: Fwd: Fwd: Help document Plone's API
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Some javascript/style in this post has been disabled (why?)

On 27/05/2009, at 9:34 PM, Mikko Ohtamaa wrote:

Developer manual writers are Python developers.  Developer manual
readers are Python developers. They are quite familiar with tools like
SVN and Sphinx. The problem is the integration part.


Totally agree that developers are a different kinds of documentation writers and so a different process might be more suited to them. Also during the last plone conference I ran a BOF session on gathering feedback on newbies on what they find hard about learning Plone. One item was that code snippets often didn't work. 
If there is a way to keep the documentation easy to edit, but testable at the same time then it could reduce the maintenance tasks of the documentation team. 
For official API documentation, I personally think we should be pushing maintenance of this documentation as much towards the developers as possible. If they can't explain their changes they shouldn't be making them.

Martin Aspeli said...
I'm not interested in a debate to displace that. I'm even less
interested in fracturing our documentation into multiple sources that
can't be easily cross-referenced, searched or integrated in terms of
navigation and structure.

but what if we could have multiple sources that can be easily cross-referenced, searched or integrated in terms navigation and structure?

As you say now is not the time to implement this, as it needs to well thought out, but the really useful part of sphinx is the ability to include elements from different sources and compile them into one document. 
If someone does write a well maintained doctest for part of the plone core, and it fit's into the api manual, why rewrite it? If there was a feature in kupu where you could "insert>linked content" and we could get that content from the current plone code base, would it be such a mess? Personally I think that it core coders saw that some of their documentation was being exposed in an official manual it would lead them to raise their game and create even more useful doctests.

Another example is the experiments Rok Garbas did with sphinx last year where he blended written documentation with ATCT schema documentation generated from the actual schemas. I'm not saying generated documentation is always appropriate, just that  when it is, the result is more maintainable.


This is totally correct. The result (content) is now more important
than how it is done and I am pretty sure volunteers are happy to use
Plone :)

+1 I will look though the mindmap after this weekend and pick some topics to contribute. This effort is long overdue and I applaud Martin for putting it back on the agenda.



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