[FM Discuss] State of the english Flossmanuals

[Gregory Pittman]

On 06/17/2015 03:51 PM, Mick FM wrote:
> 
> 
> On 17/06/15 19:57, Marvin Scholz wrote:
>>
>>> I personally don't think it's good for FM as really we want to lower
>>> barriers to writing docs, so having to use git, or mark up doesn't
>>> really fit the bill.
>>
>> Hey, well to be honest I think the opposite is the case. Most people
>> writing technical
>> documentation would prefer a markup language like Markdown instead of
>> a WYSIWG editor.
> 
> I hear what you are saying there, and I wouldn't dispute it, but let me
> clarify a bit, I meant that the goal is to make it as easy as possible
> for *anyone* to write docs without any other technical knowledge.
> 
>> A lot of sites do a "best of both worlds" solution by having an editor
>> that has buttons for
>> most common formatting and inserts the correct Markdown. 
> 
> Sure, that would be ideal, definitely.
> And even more ideal if technically able writers could write via markdown
> and git and others who were less technical could write via a web interface.
> 

This is something I would endorse, the idea that there does not need to
be one common pathway for all writers.

While there are typically some advantages of a website-centric platform
for writing and then processing, we have seen the downsides of this,
when something on the server goes bust, and suddenly no one can do much
of anything.

There can be a simple, straightforward, type-on-the-site method, but
there can also be one or more other methods which might involve
downloading/uploading content which only has to have one or more
filetype characteristics to be compatible with flossmanuals. There might
be the possibility to pull out, edit, then replace a chapter of a book,
as long as the writer has access to appropriate software to do this.

This might sound complicated, but it's really only multifaceted,
allowing for choices in how to contribute to flossmanuals, and the
various facets can be complementary, not competing with each other.

Greg