[pmwiki-users] Does this list inhibit development of good documentation?

Keith Edmunds kae at midnighthax.com
Mon Mar 5 17:18:17 CST 2007


On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 10:07:03 +1100
Kathryn Andersen <kat_lists at katspace.homelinux.org> wrote:

> Lovely idea -- but part of the difficulty is in trying to figure out
> what the "relevant place" *is*.

Good point. I've just come to pmWiki, and - despite more years than you
want to know of IT experience, programming, wiki-playing, et al - I found
it hard to get a basic understanding of how pmWiki works.

The problem, I think, is that wikis use themselves to document (quote
dogfood mantra), which is great if you know what it is you're trying to
find out (if you see what I mean). What I wanted, however, was the
equivalent of a reference manual that I could read from start to finish.
No, I wouldn't remember all the detail, but I would remember what was in
there, so that subsequently I could lookup the detail of how to accomplish
a given task.

The most frustrating thing with pmWiki is that it is very powerful, but
there is no ONE place to go to find the detail. Instead there are many
pages of information, each of which cross-reference others (in wiki
style). At the start, we just want to read it linearly.

K.



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