[PD] translate the Start Here! page

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On 01/02/2013 06:27 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
>> From: Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at at.or.at>
>> To: Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: Pd List <pd-list at iem.at>
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 10:05 AM
>> Subject: Re: [PD] translate the Start Here! page
>>
>>
>> On Jan 1, 2013, at 4:02 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
>>
>>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>>>  From: Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at at.or.at>
>>>>  To: Pd List <pd-list at iem.at>
>>>>  Cc: 
>>>>  Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 2:35 PM
>>>>  Subject: [PD] translate the Start Here! page
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  I just had another thought as for a way to provide more native-language 
>> help
>>>>  in Pd-extended.  In the Help menu is the "Start Here!" item 
>> which 
>>>>  takes you to
>>>>  http://puredata.info/docs/StartHere.  I've made it possible to set 
>> that URL 
>>>>  in
>>>>  the translation, so there can be 
>> http://puredata.info/docs/PourCommencer and
>>>>  http://puredata.info/docs/ここから始めましょう etc. That page is a short wiki
>>>>  page to tell people where they can get more help for learning Pd in 
>> their
>>>>  native language.
>>>>
>>>>  Also, that link could point to any webpage, it doesn't need to be
>>>>  puredata.info.  But it should be a community oriented site where people 
>> can
>>>>  edit the page to improve it, IMHO.
>>>>
>>>>  To change the URL in your language, edit the translation:
>>>>  https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/puredata/resource/pd-extended/
>>>>
>>>>  .hc
>>>
>>>  You should update that page before encouraging translation.  Otherwise
>>>  the translators will include links to unmaintained projects like the Pd 
>> FLOSS
>>>  Manual as has already happened.
>>
>> Which link do you think should be removed?  There isn't an official 
>> maintainer to the FLOSS Manuals english book, but its still quite good.
> 
> The FLOSS Pure Data Manual has a big, static, unmaintainable list of
> objects by category that gets more out of date every time pd-extended
> drops or adds a library.
> 
> Example of how this problem manifests itself:
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.multimedia.puredata.general/82173/focus=82174
> 
> Notice that this user presumably followed a very reasonable path to finding
> objects: puredata.info -> FLOSS Manual -> FLOSS Manual Object List -> broken objects
> in his/her instance of Pd.
> 
> Also notice that a large portion of the FLOSS Manual object list doesn't even
> specify what library the externals belong to.
> 
> Also notice that the specific objects which the user asked about weren't even
> updated in the manual after the thread had ended, nor to date.
> 
> Also notice that neither you nor I are the least bit interested in fixing these
> problems in the FLOSS manual, and we're especially not interested in taking
> it on as a long term project.  Who does that leave?  If it leaves anyone
> wouldn't their time be better spent fixing the doc problems listed on the tracker
> than etching in stone a description of a moving target?

That listing is indeed problematic, but I think most of the problems could be
addressed by better describing what that listing is.  For example, the user in
that thread was not aware of how to load libraries, i.e. [import] or [declare
-lib].  That's something that should be described in that book anyhow.

I'm very much interested in maintaining the FLOSS manuals book, and I've
contributed to it in the past.  These days, my time for Pd is quite limited.
But I will try to find time to update key bits like that.

.hc