[mythtv-users] Had an idea? Would a more experienced person share info?

[Cedar McKay]

On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 05:23  AM, shredder wrote:

> Seeing as I am well and truly a newbie, to both Linux & Myth, does 
> someone who has setup a system (Jarod & Co come to mind as I have a 
> Pundit)Wish to work along side me and make the documentation easy for 
> the first time user. I am sure it wouldbenefitmany people, I can think 
> of two who are struggling as much as I am.
>
> Others could contribute variations on a theme,i.e.graphics cards,Linux 
> versions. I would also be willing to host this information as I have a 
> spare site sitting doing nothing.
>
>
>


Documentation is really trickier than you might think. It is great to 
write docs targeted to a "newbie" but you will quickly discover than 
you must make some compromises. If you wanted to make something someone 
really green could follow, you would have to really narrow down your 
hardware and software, perhaps down to one specific hardware 
configuration and a particular distro. You might only be able to 
address one geographical location and channel source too (cable vs 
cable box vs satellite). However, in real life people come to the 
project with very diverse hardware, with different goals and needs. 
Some people want something small, good looking, quiet. Some people want 
something cheap and that is all they care about. So if you managed to 
make a set of docs that was truly linux/myth beginner friendly, I think 
you would end up with something so narrowly targeted hardware and 
software wise that it would be only useful to a limited set of people. 
If you tried to broaden your goals to include support for different 
hardware, different distros, different countries, and different tv 
sources I think you would end up with something not that different from 
what already exists.

One approach that I think could work would be customized wizard type 
docs. You are asked questions about your hardware and software config, 
and docs are generated that suit you. However, that would be a ton of 
work, and I don't think anyone is up to that right now.


best,
Cedar