Re: [Firebird-docs] Docs, create, I can

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

Hello Nigel,

> I'm interested in writing a few docs for Firebird, as I've been
> contributing to FreeBSD forums (under the name of Squidge), and have
> found myself enjoying it...

Sounds good so far :-)

> I don't know XML, DocBook, and can't run OpenOffice,

OpenOffice is of no use to us, as it doesn't support DocBook. What you
need to know about DocBook in order to write Firebird docs can be
learned in less than an hour. I'm currently writing a Firebird
Docwriting Howto covering - among other things - how to write DocBook
XML. I expect it to be ready in less than a week.

> but I can create a PDF in an instant from a documentation engine.

I visited your pages, they look really good! And so does the PDF. Can
I ask what engine you use to generate it? It does a better job than
ours :-)

On thing though: the "Firebird Documentation Project" already exists,
as a subproject of the official Firebird Project at SourceForce. So if
you continue with yours as a separate project, I think you'd better
give it another name in order to avoid confusion.


> Hopefully, it's a matter of, 'The more, The merrier?'

Well, yes and no. The more good documentation, the better. But for the
project at SourceForge we
a) really want DocBook sources (if you can't produce that, someone
   else will have to convert it, which takes time), and
b) would like to coordinate things a bit so there's not too much overlap.
   Of course this doesn't mean that WE decide what YOU write about; just
   that the docwriters talk about what they would like to / are going to
   write about, so we can make the best possible use of our collective
   knowledge and skills.

If you want to keep your docs outside the SourceForge project, you can
basically do as you please, but even then it would be a good idea to
keep in touch with the other doccers to avoid duplication.


> Are there areas that need urgent focus? I specialise in FreeBSD,
> PHP, and Apache-based web-apps, powered by Firebird, so perhaps a
> few tutes in that area, or is it saturated already?...

Not that I know. *Certainly* not in the SourceForge project. To date,
we have very little: an introduction, an MS-SQL-To-Firebird Migration
Guide, a Docbuilding Howto, a second Howto in the making and that's
it. And I'll start documenting the Firebird API soon.

Now there's also a lot of free docs (and pointers to it) available at
ibphoenix.com. I suggest you have a look there to see if some of the
things you mentioned have already been taken care of, and then decide
on what to start with.


Greetings,
Paul Vinkenoog