[FM Discuss] need a Mac user for some help with Audacity manual rewrite

M R matrobnew at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 14 14:50:20 PST 2018 

That's funny -- we joined at the same time.


Technically Mick Chesterman 'owns' the book in an admin sense (and I'm looking to him for final editorial review); I guess I'm supervising just to the extent that I initiated the re-write, and ended up doing most of it.  So, if you're looking for a deciding word from me, I'd say kill the 1.2 stuff in the Mac chapter to keep it in line with rest of the manual.  But I think the team is largely you and me on this one.  I'm easy.  It's your call.


Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of Rosalind Lord <rclord at seaserpent.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2018 3:41 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] need a Mac user for some help with Audacity manual rewrite

I’m new to the Floss community too. I joined about two or three weeks ago.

Are you supervising this Audacity manual? I had the impression you were, which was another reason why I didn’t delete the Audacity 1.2 section. I thought I should consult with you first. I was doing another chapter in another Floss manual, and I was asked to consult with the rest of the team on that manual before I made any edits in that chapter.

- Rosalind

On Jan 13, 2018, at 6:09 PM, M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Thanks, Rosalind.  I do mean what i say about people owning their own chapters, but I figured I'd at least explain why I deleted all the old 1.x references from mine.  If people are still running 1.x from years ago, and insist on sticking with it, then presumably they're beyond the kind of guidance we could give them in a Floss Manual.

Just for some history, Audacity was first released in 2000 (as version .8), and while i can't find an exact date for the 1.2 release, it had to have been before 2008.  I first started playing around with the tool about 2010, but that machine has long since died and I don't know what the version was.  2.0 was released March of 2012. Anyway, running 1.2 now (and certainly trying to install it) would be kind of like wanting to install Office 2005, or Windows Vista.  I'm sure there are people who do that, for whatever reason, but it seems like a real edge case.    OTOH, I am definitely new to the Floss community, so I really have no idea who the the readers are other than folks I've met the past few weeks in this forum.  So who knows.   I'm just glad that people here have been so incredibly responsive.  Namaste,

Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Rosalind Lord <rclord at seaserpent.com<mailto:rclord at seaserpent.com>>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2018 4:31 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] need a Mac user for some help with Audacity manual rewrite

No problem. Thank you for your prompt review/feedback, Matt.

I wasn’t sure what yours or other people’s feelings were about Audacity 1.2.5; that was why I didn’t delete it. For all I knew, some people might still use it on older machines.

But I’ll be happy to take out the text "The latest stable version of Audacity for OS X can be downloaded from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac.  The latest version at the time of writing this document is Audacity 1.2.5 (Intel) or Audacity 1.2.6a (PPC).” I’m glad you pointed this text out since I overlooked it.
[https://a.fsdn.com/allura/p/audacity/icon?1507461951]<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac>

Audacity<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac>
audacity.sourceforge.net<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>
Download Audacity for free. A free multi-track audio editor and recorder. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many languages.



You sound like you know a lot about Audacity; probably much more than I do. I’m also glad you mentioned that you removed Audacity 1.x references from other parts of this manual (from what I understand, it’s most of the rest of this manual, no?). I have not looked at much of the rest of this manual. But I will.

I’ll also be happy to delete and/or edit down the Audacity 1.2 section, since it looks like Audacity 2.2 is the version to emphasize.

I will keep you posted on all this.

Namaste,

- Rosalind

On Jan 13, 2018, at 11:18 AM, M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Rosalind:

I've reviewed your newly-added Mac install material, and i think it looks great.  Very professional.  As for leaving the 1.x material there, I'm of two minds (well, not really, but trying to be open-minded).  It doesn't hurt (at least too much) since it's pushed to the bottom of the page; on the other hand there's no new language indicating that it's a legacy install, and instead the old material still begins with the text "The latest stable version of Audacity for OS X can be downloaded from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac.  The latest version at the time of writing this document is Audacity 1.2.5 (Intel) or Audacity 1.2.6a (PPC)."  BOTH of those statements are factually incorrect now.  So a user might still be confused if they read to this point.

I personally removed all traces of 1.x reference from the parts of the manual I rewrote (which is almost everything else).  I think the key question is: what is the actual use case for a user needing a fresh or first-time install of a 1.x version of Audacity, on any OS?  It seems very very narrow to me.  I think it's still possible to find legacy 1.x install files from the main Audacity site (though not from SourceForge), but you'd really have to hunt the Audacity site and wiki to find supporting documentation for those early versions.  Certainly nothing else in our own rewritten Floss manual supports it.  And even if someone already knew the software well, and just had corrupted  or lost their install, it's hard to imagine why they wouldn't upgrade.  There are a ton of things you can't do in 1.1 and 1.2 that you can in 2.2, including lots of file types you can't open or export, let alone read other Audacity projects.  So...if it were me, I would zap the old material completely.  Or at a minimum, add language indicating that it is deprecated.  But your call; this is your chapter.

Thanks again for your work on this,

best,

Matt



________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Rosalind Lord <rclord at seaserpent.com<mailto:rclord at seaserpent.com>>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2018 9:36 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] need a Mac user for some help with Audacity manual rewrite

Hi Matt:

I have now included a section for installing Audacity 2.2.1 in the chapter for Installing Audacity on OS X in the flossmanuals.net<http://flossmanuals.net/> book on Audacity, with screen shots.
Floss Manuals - Free Manuals for Free Software<http://flossmanuals.net/>
flossmanuals.net<http://flossmanuals.net/>
A book community creating books of Free Culture and Free Software.



I have also included a sub-section on setting up Audacity 2.2.1; i.e. opening it for the first time.

I did not delete the section for Audacity 1.2.5.

Looking forward to feedback, whenever you’re ready.

Have a great weekend, Matt and everyone else here,

- Rosalind

On Jan 9, 2018, at 11:17 PM, M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>> wrote:

that would be great, Rosalind, thanks.   Let me know if you need anything from me.

Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Rosalind Lord <rclord at seaserpent.com<mailto:rclord at seaserpent.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 11:20 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] need a Mac user for some help with Audacity manual rewrite

I’d be happy to help out with this, since I’m a big Mac user, and have been one for years.

I have dabbled with Audacity a little bit.

- Rosalind

On Jan 9, 2018, at 8:11 PM, M R <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Hi folks:

Looking for a Mac user, ideally with some awareness of the Audacity tool, though perhaps no previous experience at all would be just as helpful.

I am in the process of rewriting the Audacity manual to reflect the fairly substantial changes from the initial (1.x) release to the latest (2.2.1).  There are specific chapters on installation for Ubuntu and Mac OS that I cannot address, having no access at present to either OS.  In addition, the chapter on Recording includes a long section on configuring your Mac for recording with Audacity (a bunch of specific steps you needn't take with Windows or Linux).  Looking at the official Audacity documentation, it appears to me that much in this section no longer applies, but I can't tell for sure without Mac access.  And to the extent that any of this Mac-specific recording config is still necessary, we'd need a Mac anyway to generate the new screenshots where necessary (and I'm guessing they would be, as I've had to replace every single Windows screenshot in the manual with a new one).  So, any help on this score would be appreciated. The Mac and Ubuntu installation chapters, and this part of the Recording chapter, are the only parts I think can't be adequately covered with a Windows machine.

thanks,

Matt Roberts


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