Re: DSSSL Documentation Project?

[Axel Ramge <axel@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I am new on the dsssl-list, but may be my anti-knowledge of
dsssl is a little advantage in this discussion.

As a new user or somebody who has only a "vague" knowledge of the
topic I would emphasize the information flow on the following 
subjects:

- what can you do with the software
- how do you do it - with examples
- going further with special topics
- how can you avoid traps
- last: reference, glossary etc.

In my opinion good books (or other sources of information) about
software are made this way, e.g. Stroustrups book about C++.
The information I found about DSSSL and especially jade lacks
scheme. It seems that there are programs and technical references
of very high quality, but the basic information or the sense is
missing. As an example: in the tutorial of Danial M. Germán there
is no hint how to invoke jade in the right way.

Some more suggestions:
- there should be unix man pages (i would write them, but read my
  poor english ;-)
- dsssl should make a little more "advertising" (not in the 
  meaning of "loud"), e.g. it should be possible to show 
  different examples of dsssl on a web page.
- the mailing list archive should also be offered in mbox-format,
  so that someone could read old mails in a more comfortable way
  offline (may be with majordomo's "get <file> dssslist")
- if you are discussing how to push the development with multiple
  users/editors i would hardly recommend the excellent article
  of Eric S. Raymond "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" 
  (http://www.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral.html)
  where he points out what is necessary to make successfull
  distributed software developments.

Please don't missunderstand my critics, I thank you
--
	Axel

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