Re: [Firebird-docs] Complete Language Reference

[Paul V. <pa...@vi...>]

Hello Cosmin,

> I think we can do better too, and I think many users would start
> contributing to it, little by little, provided the barrier to start
> doing it is lowered down to nothing.

Well, people can contribute in pretty much every format, including
flat text. How much lower can you make the barrier?

> I think a wiki allowing contributions from anyone is the only way
> to engage the community.

We have a wiki (*), and we have always told the wiki proponents that
they are more then welcome to contribute to it. Very few of them did.

> But it has to start as the one and only official documentation
> space and be endorsed and promoted by the firebird devs.

You're asking us to give up a system that is both solid and flexible
(and not afraid of competition from other approaches) in order to
establish a Wiki hegemony. I'm against that. First, because in my
opinion wikis are not a great format for serious, comprehensive
documentation. Second, because I still fail to see why such a
fantastic system needs to get rid of any competition first in order
to prove its superiority.

> Otherwise nothing will happen as it failed to happen for so many
> years.

We have produced thousands of pages of pretty useful documentation.
I wouldn't call that "nothing". Of course it's not enough. But with
Dmitry making time available for doc writing, there's a good chance
that we'll have our full SQL reference within a year.


Paul Vinkenoog


(*) currently, it's here:
    http://fbwiki.lsces.co.uk/users/index.php?home=lsces