[PYTHON DOC-SIG] Re: [PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Where to go (was Numerical Recipes)

[Guido van Rossum]

> It should also be made clear that restricting those docs to FrameMaker makes
> it doubly difficult to get any help updating them...  (In case it's not
> clear, I still think migrating to FM is a mistake for documentation of free
> software.)

Unfortunately, the only help I tend to get for the reference manual and
the tutorial is people pointing out typos or complaining about
unclarities.  Often with page number references only.  And lately, most
people refer to the HTML versions...

I doubt that this kind of feedback will disappear when the manuals are
in FrameMaker.

To the contrary, I received much help from Robin Friedrich with the
FrameMaker version of the reference manual.  I also received an offer
of other manuals converted to FrameMaker -- so there is clearly a
demand for FrameMaker, too!

The manual for which I got the most help in the form of new sections or
chapters is the library reference manual -- which will remain in LaTeX
or be converted to TIM.  The same holds for the (embryonic :-( ) part
of the extensions manual that documents individual API functions --
this will be a separate manual like the library reference.

Note that most people want either something they can view on their
screen, or something they can print.  The former is best served by
HTML, which we provide.

For the Unix world, the PostScript on the ftp site provides a printable
form.  For the PC world, FrameMaker is more likely to be available in
some form than LaTeX, which is reputedly difficult to install.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

=================
DOC-SIG  - SIG for the Python Documentation Project

send messages to: doc-sig@python.org
administrivia to: doc-sig-request@python.org
=================