[TYPO3-dev] [TYPO3-english] Bye-bye OpenOffice, welcome ReST

[Xavier Perseguers]

Dear TYPO3 enthusiasts,
Dear TYPO3 developers,

You cannot ignore that OpenOffice manuals are not the way to go anymore.

<disclaimer>
We are still in the process of smoothing a few edges (such as a proper 
integration with typo3.org) but basically as 95% is already working, you 
should consider switching to ReStructuredText / Sphinx today already.
</disclaimer>

You may find useful resources to do so in the TYPO3 wiki [1] but to be 
honest, as of today, this describes the relative *hard way* to switch to 
this new format since it shows you how to install a complete environment 
from scratch.

The good news is that in an attempt to make this move as easy as 
possible I created a TYPO3 extension named "sphinx" [2] which does 
(nearly) everything automatically for you and let you start creating 
Sphinx-based documentation in a few minutes (on Linux/Mac OS X) and a 
few dozens of minutes on Windows.

Q: Who should/may use EXT:sphinx?
A: Everyone.

No, sure! Installing of this extension should be quite straightforward 
if you follow the administrator documentation [3] and once installed, 
even editors without basic administrator knowledge should be able to 
kickstart new Sphinx project, edit and compile existing documentation 
(either custom documentation or extension's manual).

Even if you prefer working with a command line rather than clicking on 
buttons in TYPO3 Backend, you will be happy as EXT:sphinx does that as 
well: [4].

@Extension authors:
As you may have notice, your extension manual will be rendered both as 
HTML and as PDF on docs.typo3.org. Make sure to read [5] to get most out 
of it.

@All:
TYPO3 6.2 comes with a new documentation module and will let you 
register custom documentation as well (such as in-house editor 
documentation or whatever). I find the Sphinx Documentation Viewer so 
practical that I eased the way you may register your own document there. 
Please check [6] if you are interested.

And as TYPO3 is definitely not bound to English, EXT:sphinx's 
documentation is available in French as well. Just use the version 
switch (top right) on docs.typo3.org and choose "fr-fr" :)

If you have any question/remark, please post them here or in the 
documentation mailing list, as you prefer. Goal is now that as many of 
you as possible start to use Sphinx for their documents.

All links below are showing "latest" state of EXT:sphinx but currently 
the difference between the version 1.1.0 on TER and the master branch is 
essentially its documentation so... happy documenting!

Kind regards
Xavier

[1] http://wiki.typo3.org/Rest
[2] http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/sphinx
[3] 
http://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/extensions/sphinx/latest/AdministratorManual/InstallingExtension/Index.html
[4] 
http://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/extensions/sphinx/latest/AdministratorManual/UsingSphinxCommandLine/Index.html
[5] 
http://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/extensions/sphinx/latest/UsersManual/DocsTypo3Org/Index.html
[6] 
http://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/extensions/sphinx/latest/UsersManual/SphinxDocumentationViewer/Index.html#documentation-viewer-custom-project

-- 
Xavier Perseguers
Release Manager TYPO3 4.6

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