[Rodin-handbook] Rodin Handbook - Review for the second iteration

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Dear all,

We just finished the second iteration (out of four) on the handbook and
would like to invite you to the review.  We plan on starting with the
third iteration on October 10th.  I'd like to encourage you all to take
the time to at least glance over the work we've done so far.  It would
also be nice to have at least one official reviewer who can "sign off"
on the deliverables (Cliff: Can you do this or nominate someone?).

You can access our work so far at handbook.event-b.org
<http://handbook.event-b.org>.  Note that we will continue to work on
the handbook during the review phase.  Therefore, you will find two
versions on that page: A "frozen" version for the review, and the latest
build.  For the review, please make sure that you access the frozen build.

The second iteration consists of four work packages
<http://wiki.event-b.org/index.php/Documentation_Overhaul_DoW>, which
are documented on the Rodin Wiki.  Links to all deliverables can be
found on that page.  Please note that we made some changes to the next
two iterations, to take our progress into account.

We generate four versions of the documentation from the same sources:
HTML <http://handbook.event-b.org/review-2/html/>, PDF
<http://handbook.event-b.org/review-2/pdf/rodin-doc.pdf> and Eclipse
Help.  We encourage you to check out all three versions.  To evaluate
the Eclipse Help version, you have to install the handbook plugin
<http://handbook.event-b.org/review-2/plugin/org.rodinp.handbook.zip>
into any Eclipse installation.  More convenient, we now added the frozen
version to the update site /http://handbook.event-b.org/updatesite/ . 
The 2.3 RC of Rodin already includes this update site.  Rodin 2.3 will
not yet include the Handbook, but the inclusion of the update site
allows for quick installation, if desired.

On the HTML and Eclipse Help versions, we offer a feedback button
<https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEJmXzUydnRzZGdDVE16WFZmZmd1alE6MQ&entry_0=User%20Manual%20for%20Rodin%20v.2.2>
that conveniently allows you to provide immediate feedback.  If your
organizations blocks the button, or if you are off-line, you can also
provide feedback by email (there is also a link for this purpose). The
feedback button is useful for error reporting, etc.  For discussions,
please consider using the handbook mailing list
<http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/rodin-b-sharp-handbook>.

What you see here is the work of Lukas Ladenberger, Daniel Plagge and
Joy Clark, who all did a terrific job, and myself.  We hope you are
happy with the developments so far.

Here is a summary of this iteration's work:

  * The tutorial is now complete, including an editorial pass of a
    native English speaker.
  * We migrated the appropriate content from the Wiki to the Handbook,
    and marked the content in the Wiki accordingly.
  * We created the structure for the reference section and filled it
    with content.  Please note that this chapter is not finished, even
    though all the content is there.  You'll find many "marginpars"
    there indicating tasks that are left to do. 
  * We created the FAQ and filled it with the existing and some new content.
  * We processed all the feedback that we received, both through the web
    form and via email.
  * We added some of the content that is necessary to make the book
    complete, like creative commons license, acknowledgements,
    introduction, etc.
  * We were not sure initially whether our tool chain (mainly plastex)
    would support an index.  It does, and we started to provide entries.
  * We provided a way for plugin developers to include their code, and
    demonstrated this by adding some ProB and some Camille
    documentation.  We invite all plugin developers to add content for
    their extensions in the appropriate places.
  * A number of minor changes regarding appearance and tool chain.

Best regards,

- Michael

-- 
Michael Jastram (http://www.jastram.de, +49 (162) 274 83 94)
Wissenschaftler, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf (http://www.stups.uni-duesseldorf.de)
1. Vorsitzender, rheinjug e.V. (http://www.rheinjug.de)