[reportlab-users] Help needed with documentation

Andy Robinson reportlab-users@reportlab.com
Tue, 28 May 2002 09:51:15 +0100


One thing we are aware of is the need to keep documentation
up to date, and it's hard finding the time.  We've recently
noticed that some things (especially the graphics guide)
are very out of date.  Unfortunately, we also have to do 
projec work to pay the bills and have failed to find the time.
So, I am asking for volunteers.  After all, it is Open Source!

If you have a few hours to spare - either one-off or regular -
and are looking for a way to contribute, but don't feel able to 
hack around with PDF files, we could use a little help!

Ideally I'd like to appoint one or two volunteers to act
as "reviewers" for given manuals of manual chunks.
We want to
 - root out inaccuracies
 - add more examples
 - produce new content and new kinds of manuals
In particular I'd like to get on with some kind of
cookbook of task-based examples e.g. "3 ways to do page 
X of Y" to round out the manual; and to improve the
auto-generated reference, which pulls docstrings.

In the long term, the dream situation is that we have
2-3 documenters (maybe not forevere but for 3 months
or so) who can 'swing into action' a couple of weeks
before each release and make sure things are up to
scratch.

If anyone feels able to spend some time on this, please
respond here or email johnp@reportlab.com (John Precedo)
who is our documentation expert.  He'll make sure that
you know how to build the manuals and agree standards
for patch submission.

Many Thanks!

Andy Robinson
CEO and Chief Architect, ReportLab Inc.