[PD] Re: thoughts on manuals
Hans-Christoph Steiner
hans at eds.org
Thu Apr 27 16:25:58 CEST 2006
On Apr 27, 2006, at 2:50 PM, adam wrote:
> okedoke, I had some time to check out the tutorial patches and now i
> also have a few minutes to put offer some feedback.
>
> The patches are great, they offer a lot of information for those that
> would like to learn about specific objects and how to implement
> them. They
> are perfect for workshops for providing to workshop members so they
> can
> all look at the same patch on seperate machines and try it out.
>
> However, I'm now not so convinced this is a good process for a
> manual. I
> think there is not enough information in these tutorials to fully
> explain
> objects and how you implement them if there was no workshop leader
> to help
> you along. It is tricky, for example, to really be able to explain
> how the
> file menu works, or how to drag connectors between objects in a patch.
> This kind of thing is possible to show with screen shots but in a
> patch I
> am not sure its so easy to illustrate.
These tutorials need to be more fine-grained, that's for sure. This
is just a start. As for screenshots, you can embed images in a patch.
> Also, some of the tutorial patches didnt load in the externals. I
> guess this is because I didnt have the externals loaded. This is ok
> for me, I can work it out,
> but a new user woulod be very confused by this. This could perhaps
> be combated by making a 'plain vanilla' manual with no info for
> externals but I am not sure this
> is what is intended with the PDDP initiative.
The tutorials are intended to work with Pd-extended so we don't have
to be crippled by using a tiny subset of available objects. But
there are still bugs. If you are using Pd-extended, all objects
should be found. Please submit a bug report if they are not.
> Also, one of the great things about patch examples are that they are
> editable. It is also something that could cause confusion if a user
> edits
> a manual patch and then doesn't know how to fix their mistake. They
> could
> easily end up saving the faulty patch and it would stay permanently in
> their manual with incorrect or confusing info.
In Pd-extended, all of the reference material is read-only by
default. If some patches are not, that's a bug.
> Lastly, I think the layout possibilities are very restricted with
> patches. They seem 'clunky'...i am open to be proven wrong here if
> someone can show me a good
> example of a well designed tutorial patch. To me a good manual is
> more than just info or examples. Information is also made more
> acessible and readable through
> design. A README doc or a man page is good enough for a geek but
> not for your average user. They will run away screaming. A PD patch
> as a manual is half way
> between a man page and a designed manual. Its not geek chic and its
> not newbie friendly. As I said above, please prove me wrong on
> this. From what I know of PD and
> what I have seen so far though, I am not sure the patches lend
> themselves to good, readable, user friendly docs.
>
> So for me, althoguh I wanted to be carried away with enthusiasm for
> making a patch based manual, I am not convinced this is the right
> way to do it. I think the
> tutorial patches have a very important role, but I am not sure this
> is for introducing newbies or potential PD users to the world of PD.
please check out the templates sketches here. It would be great if
you want to contribute some sketches of templates for about,
tutorials, etc. The help template is pretty much finalized.
http://puredata.org/dev/pddp
.hc
> ..on
> Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 11:12:32PM +0200, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>
>> So it sounds like Tuesday May 2nd it is. If anyone has any time to
>> review the tutorial patches I organized recently, I'd love feedback.
>>
>> .hc
>>
>> On Apr 26, 2006, at 5:54 PM, Koray Tahiroglu wrote:
>>
>>> I will not be join to PDDP meeting tomorrow either. I will be busy
>>> with writing the last paper for this term.
>>>
>>> Koray.
>>>
>>> On Apr 26, 2006, at 6:40 PM, pd-list-request at iem.at wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'll be stuck at work working on an installation for that night,
>>>> so I'm
>>>> certainly out for that day.
>>>>
>>>> Worth keeping the discussion going, so I encourage those who can
>>>> make it
>>>> to have a meeting then...
>>>>
>>>> ..b.
>>>>
>>>> Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> So I couldn't make the PDDP meeting yesterday, the internet was
>>>>> down
>>>>> all day here and I was sick as a dog anyhow. I hope people
>>>>> didn't wait
>>>>> around for me.
>>>>>
>>>>> How about doing it tomorrow, Thursday April 26th at the standard
>>>>> time:
>>>>>
>>>>> * 11.00 Pacific Time
>>>>> * 14.00 Eastern Time
>>>>> * 19.00 UTC
>>>>> * 20.00 Central European
>>>>>
>>>>> Oh, I just noticed that May 2nd is posted on the PDDP page. I
>>>>> don't
>>>>> think I can make that since I'll be workshopping then.
>>>>>
>>>>> .hc
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>>>> __
>>>>> ____
>>>>> ____
>>>>>
>>>>> "The arc of history bends towards justice."
>>>>> - Dr. Martin Luther
>>>>> King, Jr.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ________________________________________
>>>
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> ___
>> ____
>>
>> ?El pueblo unido jam?s ser? vencido!
>>
>
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>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Adam Hyde
> ~/.nl
>
> selected projects
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~adam
>
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>
> r a d i o q u a l i a
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>
> Free as in 'media'
> email : adam at xs4all.nl
> mobile : + 31 6 186 75 356 (Netherlands mobile)
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