[FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book

M R matrobnew at hotmail.com
Thu Jan 11 12:17:28 PST 2018


Mick:


I've completed my revisions to the Audacity manual--at least everything I could do from a Windows machine.  Rosalind Lord has agreed to address the Mac-specific install chapter and Recording config instructions.  There's also a Linux/Ubuntu install chapter, which someone in that world will need to update (at least with screenshots, if all the info itself is still current).  But the other 90% or so has been redone, with new screenshots throughout (Windows-based; in the old manual they were Linux-based, but it's my rewrite so I'm the Decider in this case 😊).  As for the writing, since there was so much feature change and addition from 1.x to 2.2, a good deal of the text has been rewritten as well.  So someone with veteran FM eyes will want to take a look, to make sure I haven't strayed too much either stylistically or in terms of depth of coverage.


I have relied heavily both on my own experimentation with Audacity 2.2, and where necessary on official Audacity documentation.  In the latter case, where I've borrowed specific information I've paraphrased language wherever possible (being an English/composition professor, I know the rules), though in some specific places clarity and precision has dictated that I follow their wording.  In some cases, where a topic is dealt with much more exhaustively in their documentation than it was in the earlier version of the Floss manual, I've linked to the relevant pages in their site (in the old manual, this was only done once in the appendix, and I don't know if you have best-practice guidance on this, but it seemed like the most useful thing to do).


Anyway, there it is.  I'm happy to revise based on any feedback.


best,


Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of mick at flossmanuals.net <mick at flossmanuals.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 2:35 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book


This sounds great!

On 10/01/18 12:52, M R wrote:

Hi Mick:


I agree that what's important to the end user is feature and function, not version/release number as such.  Certainly incremental releases (like the difference between 2.2.1 and 2.2.2) don't typically merit an update to the documentation.  But here we're talking essentially about the delta between an initial stable release (1.1) and a release some years later (2.x);  and having nearly completed the revision I can say that about 40% of the functionality is new altogether, and much of the rest has new GUI look/feel and arrangement, and/or is found in a new place in the main menu system than in the first release.  When and if the time comes, we'll see what the delta is between 2.x and 3.x; but I'm guessing a new revision of the FM would be appropriate then too.   Meanwhile users of the newly-revised book will at least know they are dealing with the Audacity feature-set as of late 2017.


Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net><mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of Mick Chesterman <M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk><mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 2:26 AM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book


Hi there,



Regarding not including version numbers.

It’s not a strong opinion but it’s based on some software which changes version a lot but not necessarily function.

In that case it can mean the process of patching up docs and just making small changes where there is new functionality is harder, or may appear harder as an editor may think they need to update the whole manual which might be too big a job for them to take on, or at least to finish.

In any case I would trust your judgement on this for the Audacity manuals.



Thx

Mick

From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net] On Behalf Of M R
Sent: 08 January 2018 06:19
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book



Mick:



Ok, this is well underway, though it's going to take some time as there is fairly major delta between Audacity 1.x and 2.2, with a great deal of feature rearranging and many outright new features, which I'm having to spin up on through a mix of experimentation and appeal to the audacity org documentation.  But it's exactly the sort of practice I wanted, and I need it now so the rewrite will move ahead with all deliberate speed.  I haven't tackled the tutorials part yet, and can't swear that I'll keep the original tasks exactly as they were, but all the basic chapter subjects will certainly be preserved.



Btw, I'm not completely sold on the idea of eliminating all references to release/version numbers, which currently appear at the start of each chapter and a few other places.   If someone tried to use the current manual and didn't realize it was years out of date, they'd be lost in some fairly important ways.  Clearly the need for this kind of update is burdensome, and I wouldn't advocate it in the Floss context for more than maybe first-order versions (ie 1.x vs 2.x), but I'm not seeing any good purpose to burying the delta itself.   Can you share your thinking on this?



best,



Matt







________________________________

From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Mick Chesterman <M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk<mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>>
Sent: Sunday, January 7, 2018 1:35 AM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book



Hi Matt,



That sounds good,



Unfortunately as I migrated 95% of the books in from the last system, I'm down as the owner for all of those.



I would say that where possible it would be good to take out references to software version numbers when we come across them.



Thanks

Mick



________________________________

From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>>
Sent: 06 January 2018 01:11
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book



Actually I see it was Ryan who started the substantive updating in June, so I guess my question below is addressed to Ryan (hi Ryan) as much as Mick.



Matt



________________________________

From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>>
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 6:09 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book



Hi Mick:



One of your many hats here seems to be owner of the Audacity book.  In that capacity, I wonder what you'd like to see done next with that book as it currently stands.  It looks like back in June of last year you did some preliminary work to acknowledge the then-current version 2.1.3 (we're now at 2.2.1), but as far as I can tell most of the extant screenshots and feature discussions throughout the book (other than the installation stuff you worked on) still refer to 1.x.  So would it be useful for me to just start working chapter by chapter to update screenshots and (where necessary) feature discussions to 2.2.x?  I wouldn't be doing anything other than updating within the existing framework, and no fancy innovations like screen vids 😊  Just addressing the delta from 1.x.  What do you think?



Matt

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