[Plone-docs] Re: PloneHelpCenter impressions

[Tom C. <tom...@co...>]

Martin,

You wrote:
> I submitted my first PHC piece:
> 
> http://plone.org/documentation2/error/
> helpcentererrorreference.2004-09-28.5126539333

Well, I just READ my first PHC piece: How-to " Display LDAP attributes 
within a portlet" -
< 
http://plone.org/documentation2/howto/helpcenterhowto.2004-09-28.3745056528/howto_view 
 >

(Whew - how about fixing that file name!)

Reactions --

1. I'm absolutely THRILLED to finally see some content appearing in the 
PHC. I'm so eager to see this take off. Alexander's design concept seems 
exactly right: low barrier to entrance, coupled with intelligent 
workflow. This surely will result in more, better documentation, 
something about which I have revealed a few feelings, in the recent past.

2. I have added a comment, pursuant to my campaign to make the world 
(well, the Plone world, anyway) safer for Novice Developers (NDs). Not a 
real important issue, more like a suggested perspective adjustment.

3. I note, at the bottom of the article, in grayed out, barely readable 
font, the following:  "This how-to applies to: Plone 2.0.x". It's great 
that we're finally identifying to which version of Plone a Help applies, 
BUT why make it so obscure? This is vital information, given the number 
of people out there who for very good reasons have NOT migrated to Plone 
2.x. I think this information should be at the very beginning, and that 
it should be in the keywords, and that there should be provided a 
dynamic page (I just started using Plone product mxmDynamicPage last 
night - wow!) which provides direct access to PHC information BY VERSION 
to which a help applies. Hey - I could even set this up! But there would 
need to be in place a policy mandating the keywording of all articles as 
to relevant version, prior to publication. AND, there may well be a 
better way of doing this. This is just the way *I* can think up, this 
morning.

All this after only looking at ONE entry in the PHC. I'm just so pleased 
to see this thing come alive. The world already feels safer for us ND's.

Thanks to all.

Tom Cloyd