Author Topic: uTasker Documentation  (Read 8048 times)

Offline mhoneywill

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 173
    • View Profile
uTasker Documentation
« on: April 20, 2010, 01:37:14 PM »
Hi Mark,

I've just been going through my downloaded copies of the utasker documentation to check my copies are uptodate. And I've got a couple of suggestions.

1. Is it possible to indicate the version number of each document within its description on the website i.e. V0.05 etc. To check which versions I had I have to download every document, open it and check the footer. Maybe you could incorporate the document version in the filename?

2. Is it possible to have one zip file with all the documentation, maybe this zip file could also group documents into different folders depending on topics like "tcpip" "file systems" etc.

I also noticed that the uTaskerTELNET.pdf document seems to have disappeared from the website.

Cheers

Martin

Offline mark

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3234
    • View Profile
    • uTasker
Re: uTasker Documentation
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2010, 08:32:13 PM »
Hi Martin

Thanks for the ideas. I updated the page to consistently include the release version and date of each document (at least the "uTasker Documents" and "uTasker Preliminary Documents").

I will still need to look into a single document zip.

As for the TELNET document: This was a .doc file that was delivered with the original projects. More recently the Web page has taken over since it is much easier to keep documents up to date there - the documentation folder is no longer included with the software. The TELNET document was however never actually published on the web page since it was not complete. Therefore I added it to the list of "preliminary documents", but note that - as well as missing some chapters - it may also not be fully up-to-date since it originates from 2006. TELNET has not been greatly modified since then but it may require a rework to fully reflect the present implementation...

Regards

Mark


Offline aaronlawrence

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 66
    • View Profile
Re: uTasker Documentation
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2010, 12:39:12 AM »
Mark,

What we did to provide both an online and downloadable version of our docs, is use HtmlHelp (.CHM file).
With a few scripts/preprocessing you can put the same HTML files either onto a website or compiled into a CHM.

This is essentially what Microsoft do with MSDN.

As you know, I am pretty unhappy with the state of the uTasker documentation, and would like to see you put a lot more effort into making it complete and available in one place, rather than launching into new features or processors... fun as those are.

So I'd suggest you look at converting all your PDFs, forum posts, and "code explorer" into a set of HTML files and images that can be combined as a single downloadable CHM and viewed online.

Offline mhoneywill

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 173
    • View Profile
Re: uTasker Documentation
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2010, 10:48:36 AM »
Hi Mark,

I understand the problems of trying to juggle product documentation against product development.

One of the tools we use for documentation is "Help and Manual" http://www.ec-software.com/ this allows us to product PDF, CHM and HTML help from one source. Not cheap but very good. Another product that may also do a similar job is  "Infohesive" http://www.2brightsparks.com/infohesive/features.html I have not tried this product but it looks interesting, and its a lot cheaper than help and manual.

I'm also trying to think if there is anyway some of us as users can help with the documentation effort, maybe some form of wiki. Where we can post code snippets etc. and fill in a documentation template that you have setup (function documentation for instance). You can just moderate / correct what we do, and also provide style guidelines. Again there is the extra issue of copying data out of the wiki and into other forms of offline help (PDF/CHM).

You need a combination wiki/Goggledocs type service which can save in an offline format (PDF and CHM), where the wiki can be browsed and searched in a read only mode by users but also edited by selected users. It would obviously need to be multi user allowing concurrent updates at the same time. Its a holy grail but I'm not sure what the solution is.

Cheers

Martin