[PD] mickfuzz's Pure Data FLOSS Manual, a message on behalf of Pd's community

[Alexandre Torres Porres]

Em seg., 22 de nov. de 2021 às 11:33, <ol at ogeem.be> escreveu:

> hello,
>
> I would agree with this (good to have other sources)
> and will add that the French version has been updated to the latest(ish)
> state of the pd ecosystem


Hi, well, first, sorry to be harsh criticism I'll bring here, but I
strongly disagree you have an updated version of the manual. I've been
checking the changes. The french manual has a different introduction and
talks about the latest vanilla and forks, but all of the remains is
basically the same. For instance, the installation still considers
'Pd-extended' 0.39' =>
https://fr.flossmanuals.net/puredata/installation-sur-mac-os-x/

When talking about OSC, there's no mentioning of Pd's internals that can
handle it. Not to mention that it is quite outdated in general when not
mentioning now the quite old feature that is [clone]

You don't explain how to use deken or even mention it. Pd's actual manual
is not referred and it includes lots of important and current information
on how to handle externals. When talking about libraries, you have
information on pd-extended's [import] object and nothing about [declare].
Many of the external libraries you have on the manual simply do not show
how you can install them in the first place. And GEM seem to have issues on
macOS (I don't really know much about this) and is a bit outdated. There's
nothing about new externals, like [ofelia], for instance...

I can't read french, but what I see is that this is a variant of the
english floss manual centered in pd-extended, but with a new small
introduction that talks about vanilla and a couple of forks and with the
pd-extended external list removed (which is something pretty nice it had!).
I think this is a good example of parallel efforts that despite the
advantages and good it brings (like being a great resource for french
speakers) end up generating noise. We now have an official Manual that not
many users are aware of. An english and abandoned FLOSS Manual that is
actually centered in Pd-Extended and totally outdated, and a french version
of the same manual that is not the same manual at all (but people will
assume that it is the exact same thing but in french) and it sits somewhere
between a pd-extended manual and an outdated Pd manual.

It's ok if we want to go back and write a new FLOSS Manual, but please, let
us do that then. Just keep this as the french version of the old FLOSS
Manual (centered in Pd-extended) - in fatc I'm trying to rename it as a
pd-extended manual.

And if we start with a new english one, we can then think about translating
it to other languages. And people who want to translate it to other
languages should collaborate with the english one. If they're working on
new things on a different language, they can also bring it to the original
'master' one in english to avoid noise.

and will be updated when / where necessary
> (I'll try to keep it up) to keep a current (french) ressource available
> with a didactic introduction to concepts (and not just a technical
> reference)
>

Well, I think this is still quite far from being updated, so it needed to
be updated *now* in things I've pointed, but again, I can't read french and
help more, and we could work instead ogether on a new english official
version first, where more people can collaborate (including you) before we
have it in other languages.

I don't know what you mean by "a didactic introduction to concepts (and not
just a technical reference)". If you mean Pd's manual/documentation is just
too technical and not didactic, we can discuss about improving on this
matter.

cheers
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