Re: [Firebird-docs] Complete Language Reference

[Cosmin A. <cos...@gm...>]

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 3:53 AM, Paul Vinkenoog <pa...@vi...> wrote:
> 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?

Hm, writing bits of texts and sending them over by email for you to
put on the server is your idea of collaborating to produce structured
documentation? That kinda proves my point on open development, doesn't
it? Following your argument, email is better than Facebook. It's
certainly the lowest common denominator for collaboration tools, how
much lower can you make the barrier, right? :) And yet people find
certain tools better for certain jobs.

>> 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.

You mean the "Temporary Firebird Wiki", which starts with "Lester's
Info"? :) Is that a joke, or just a straw man? Apart from not even
knowing it exists (is it even advertised somewhere on the website?),
that wiki doesn't even say what is there for. If that wiki was put up
there to prove your point about wikis, you got it.

>> 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

Solid and flexible? You mean like a giant mushroom? :)

> (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.

We already know your opinion on wikis. The problem is, this is not
about you. I mean, it is noble to want to write it all by yourself
alone, and that's what you'll ever gonna get if you aren't willing to
consider other people's opinions too.

> 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.

Competition only works on a (free) market, not within an organization.
In FOSS, it means that competition works _between_ projects, not
_within_ a project. Within a project one expects cohesion and
coordination of goals and methods. If you create two competing
documentations for Firebird, what you'll get confusion, not
competition. And above that, nobody will put effort on a project whose
sole purpose is to prove its worthiness to you, the "established
authority". This was discussed before, and I see you're still on the
blind alley on this one.

>> 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".

I meant nothing in terms of community involvement not number of pages.
It's the same people writing the docs since the beginning.

> 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.

I'm glad your efforts to find new contributors have borne fruit :) Now
a core dev is writing the docs :)