Documentation Development
Open Source Documentation Objectives
- How accessible are the requirements to use the documentation? (ex. particular computer hardware and software)
- How easily can the user navigate the information to find what they want to know?
- How easily can the user make a separate copy of the information to use parts of the documentation for a separate project?
- How easily can the user edit the original or copied information to revise the documentation?
- How easily can edited information be made compatible with a different documentation system?
Analysis
Webpages are currently the most accessible form of documentation.
Webpages provide 2D visual information with audio.
Accessibility: A web browser is the major requirement.
Navigate: The webpage's 2D view and audio itself is the interface for navigation
Copy: Text and images can be copied. The webpage information can be downloaded as an html file.
Edit: With wiki software, a set of webpages can be made editable.
The major disadvantage of webpages is along the copy side, where embedded videos and contents of file links are not directly downloadable. Post-download compatibility problems exist with the html file that must be used where the entire webpage is wanted. These problems can be solved by going to indirect processes and downloading separate content items one by one but those solutions are time-consuming.
Compressed file packages are another accessible form of documentation.
Compressed file packages contain multiple folders and files of different types.
Accessibility: An uncompression program is necessary.
Navigate: The names of the folders and files at first, then there may be files that aid navigation.
Copy: All files and folders, plus the package itself, is readily copied.
Edit: All files are editable as long as the file-format compatible software is accessible.
The major problem with compressed file packages is that they must be downloaded via link from a webpage, which means that the user cannot navigate and use the content directly from the webpage, and instead must pass through another step that takes time and decreases accessibility. Additionally, a user interested in a particular part of information still needs to download the entire package, which would be inefficient telecommunication. The solution to this is high data transfer rate such that the file package can be downloaded quickly.
An integrated solution would be to design software that could provide the direct accessibility/navigability of a webpage's contents with the direct copyability/editability of a compressed file packages.
The integrated solution would involve being able to show the contents of the compressed file package directly on the webpage itself, with a download link to get a copy of the project info in a compressed file package.
An important feature for editing would be to connect the webpage contents and file link such that edits to the webpage contents automatically change the contents of the compressed package, and vice-versa.
Collaborative editing is also important to consider. Coordinating conflict-free revisions to a documentation package is the objective.
Latest Documentation System
Use of Mediawiki to allow collaboratively edited set of webpages. Directly accessible information on the wikipages- mainly introductory data.
Uploading downloadable new and revised project documentation packages for one-person project development.
..... for multi-person project development.
