Dear list,
the book sprint for the Pd FLOSS Manual last weekend went very well! Several writers and proofreaders joined us at each location in New York City and Berlin, as well as remote contributors online (see contributors below).
The good news is that quite a lot of content was generated over the weekend, including the beginnings of entirely new sections on GEM, MIDI, Network Data and Sensors. You can see the work-in-progress FLOSS Manual via the editing interface here:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/WebHome
The not-so-good news is that most of these new sections are in limbo! Next month, Adam and I hope to publish version 1.0 of the Pure Data FLOSS Manual to the front page of the FLOSS Manuals site for public viewing:
The chapters that will be included in Version 1.0 will be:
INTRODUCTION INSTALLING GETTING STARTED THE INTERFACE AUDIO TUTORIALS DATAFLOW TUTORIALS STREAMING LIST OF OBJECTS APPENDICES
But in order to do this, some of the chapters in each section need some improvement. Here's what needs to happen immediately. Please take a look and see if you can help!
____ALL CHAPTERS____ --Proofreading for spelling, simplicity, new-user-friendliness and consistent tone (see INSTALLING, GETTING STARTED, THE INTERFACE and AUDIO TUTORIALS chapters for style and format examples).
____AUDIO TUTORIALS___
-> This section is almost done. What remains is to make a proper tutorial out of it... i.e. that the examples in the chapter follow a "story" which leads up the construction of a simple synthesizer. Due to changes in structure of the chapters inside, this needs updating, but I will work on it. -> In general, structure, tone and content of these chapters should serve as guide for the rest of the manual. -> I would like to see all sections follow this tutorial model, of building up a project from the various elements introduced in each chapter. -> keep in mind that other sections (such as MIDI, NETWORK DATA, SENSORS, etc) can build on examples started in this chapter, so that the whole manual is interconnected and has a proper "storyline".
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Tables --where does this go? Dataflow or Audio? (Audio I think) --Would be good to integrate with http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/ArraysGraphsTables --I'd like to crop screenshots to get rid of menu bar --Incomplete, needs expansion and also "loop it" and "play sections" parts --Could this also be structured like tutorial rather than taxonomy?
____DATAFLOW____
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Messages --Looks very good!
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Math --"I guess it isn't necessary to explain how [+], [-], [*] and [/] work. " Check for tone. --Bit twiddling: empty --Expr: empty --Audio math: empty
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Lists --Needs more than taxonomy, i.e. real world examples!!!!!
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/OrderOfOperations --Needs a little attention, but I'm not sure, maybe simpler examples, clearer screenshots, explain object abbreviations in-line if used
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/WirelessConnections --Examples too busy, need to be simpler!!!!!! --Text doesn't really connect to examples
* Subpatches, Abstractions & Dollarsigns --These should all be in one chapter, explaining how to make reusable patches with nice interfaces, rather than atomized into different chapters(title = Patch Management?)
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Subpatches --Needs final real world example, maybe in connection with abstractions + GoP
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/Abstractions --Tie in with Patch Management (to be created) --Better examples!
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/DollarSigns --Get rid of this chapter, confusing collision with dollar signs in messages --Better examples, explained in-line in text --Tie in with Patch Management (to be created) --All examples are not saved anywhere!!!!!
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/GraphOnParent --Move to Patch Management (to be created) --Not completely explained (colored background canvas) --No colors in Pd patch screenshots please!
* http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/PureData/ArraysGraphsTables --Check text for clarity, accuracy, simplicity --Redo screenshots with antialiased text please!
___LIST OF OBJECTS____ -> Table format doesn't work in some browsers (Adam Hyde will look into this)
____GLOSSARY____ -> HTML tables don't work well here, Adam Hyde will reformat text with <h1>, <h2> and <h3 tags>
...and finally, THE CONTRIBUTORS!
Here are the folks that helped us rock last weekend, in no particular order:
AdamHyde DerekHolzer HansChristophSteiner ScottFitzgerald VincentRioux PatrickDavison JoaoPais ServandoBarreiro KorayTahiroglu MariusSchebella JeremySchaller MaxNeupert EvanRaskob GeorgWerner AlexandrePorres JayMaechtlen RomanHaefeli DanielShiffman LauraGarciaBarrio AlejoDuque
(My apologies if I accidentally left someone out!)
Thanks all, I'm looking forward to seeing this 1.0 version looking its best! Derek