Philip Hazel wrote:
>On Wed, 16 Nov 2005, Jason Meers wrote:
>
>I have always said that I am the wrong person to write stuff about
>"basic Exim" because I know too much. I only wrote the book because
>nobody else seemed likely to do so. I would very much welcome
>introductory material for beginners, in whatever form (different people
>like different formats).
>
>
>
That is a problem for the developers because they never had to learn the
program. I have an idea that I hope universities would pick up on. Take
student who are learking technical documentation and assign them to open
source projects. Their job would be to work with the developers and
users to create good documentation. The projects are helped in that they
get good docs and the docs can eventually become the resume for the new
tech writer to get a job with.
The writer would learn the program themselves noting all the confusing
stuff. The would also go to say Linux user groups and get 10 people to
install the software, giving each of them voice recorders to complain
into. The writeer would then change the documentation until the users
found it easy. The writer might even suggest features to the developers
that would make it easier.