[TYPO3-hci] a newcomer's introduction and TSref

[Rick - Futuros]

Maybe it's a good idea to seperate the configuration aspects of the 
documentation from the rest.

With configuration aspects i mean
  - TSref
  - TSconfig
  - Config variabels of extensions

This way we can make one big reference to all configuration settings 
with some of the usefull functions Silke described earlier.

We can keep using the openoffice documents for the tutorials and other 
docs. (Allthough i don't really like this format because i can't write 
them with msoffice. And i dont feel leek installing an extra office 
packet next to my expensive msoffice. But that's a whole other 
discussion :-))


Silke Arend wrote:
>>Silke Arend schrieb am 26.06.2006 13:51:
>>
>>
>>>Is it just because I don't know Typo3 well enough yet, or why should
>>>one not use Typo3 itself for the TSref?
>>>
>>>The need of extension programming is obvious. On the other hand, I
>>>would need that for my organization system anyways. And  it would be
>>>a prominent example of what you can do with Typo3 - instead of using
>>>a different software and thereby stating, Typo3 is not capable of
>>>handling this task or at least for this purpose it is not the first
>>>choice.
>>>
>>>Please, help me to understand the problem with using Typo3 here.
>>
>>Online documentation is using TYPO3 already: It extracts the information
>>from an external source (the OpenOffice documentation) and "integrates"
>>it into TYPO3 in form of plugins. I think this shows different strong
>>points of TYPO3: extendability and no limits in input formats: you just
>>have to create some plugins, as the typo3.org people did it.
>>
>>The use of OpenOffice makes it very easy for extension authors to
>>document their extensions (or create tutorials, etc), because its is
>>freely available and is not dependent on any other database or system.
>>
> 
> 
> Please, don't get me wrong: I don't want to argue, I am just trying to understand: To make content available on the Internet is - simply expressed - the core function of Typo3 - right? So, should it really be necessary to use a word processing software in the process? 
> The TSref, the way it is now, does not display one of the major aspects of the Internet: linking content...  And it does not reflect the database aspect of Typo3.
> 
> In terms of availability: who ever needs to write a documentation for Typo3 will have Typo3 ready to use anyways...
> 
> And I think the TSref is to be seen differently: it is used as a reference, again and again. Whereas a documentation of an extension most often will be read only when starting to use the extension or when trying to adjust it later on. In other words: a different approach for TSref would be justified. If it would turn out to be an nteresting approach for other types of documentation as well, that would be an extra bonus - not a prerequisite.
> 
> 
>>The other alternative that you seem to suggest is to have all
>>documentation content being maintained as TYPO3-content elements and
>>then use that database information to construct other output (PDF, etc)
>>on demand.
>>
> 
> For TSref: yes.
> 
> 
>>Although I think this should be possible, its a complete different way
>>of doing it and would require a huge amount of code to get it working,
>>which I don't think we are capable of bringing up right now. For such
>>tasks we usually have to wait for some "standing by" hero that just goes
>>ahead and "does it". :)
> 
> 
> I have no idea right now, how much work it would involve, and I am for sure no hero ;-)  yet I would consider going ahead by at first counting the costs - if it is worthwhile. I don't want to start a project for the sake of keeping myself busy.... What are others thinking of this idea?
> 
> Bye, for now
> 
> Silke
>