I am sending this one again, because of the same reason as the other one... It was too large the first time... > Hello again: > I have read everyone's posts and I think that everyone has and makes very > valid points. I don't plan to start writing the howto until I gather some > more info and test some things my self. > > Yes, writing technical docs is hard and time consuming, but I will give it > a try... I think it will be alright. > > I have been thinking about the document and how it should be focused. I > like the distribution specific approach while maintaining enough > generality to be useful in other distributions. For example, writing the > howto for FC2 and including some necessary information for other distros, > but not cluttering the document with references to too many unrelated > topics. The reason for my approach is that I am a newbie (as I said > before) and I have fresh in my mind all the many frustrating hours > searching through tons of general documentation that I could not > understand nor use. So, I want to safe the next newbie some time and give > them a set of simple instructions that I know will work for sure. Advance > users can read the FC2 instructions and apply them to whatever they use, > but beginners can't go the other way. > > Another problem is that I don't have experience with other distributions, > so writing something about them would be pure speculation. What can be > done is generate a set of documents that would cover the main distros, but > that would require someone other than me to work on them. Again, I think > the distro centric approach with the necessary additional info about other > distros is probably the best compromise between generality and > practicality... > > Thank everyone so much for responding so wonderfully to my post yesterday. > If I don't respond to everyone's posts, I am sorry, but I would be saying > the same stuff over and over... I read every post though, so everyone's > help is great. > > Thomas, I will be checking out your Speakup howto and hopefully > contributing the software speech to it... > Oh, Janina's FC2 installation howto is great and yes, maybe the URL should > be a little more user friendly! > > David > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at rednote.net> > To: <david at bruzos.org>; "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." > <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 8:18 AM > Subject: Re: writing spk howto (?) > > >> Absolutely, you should do a Speakup with Software Speech HOWTO. The >> community needs one desparately, and there aren't enough of us document >> writers to go around. >> >> In all honesty, I must tell you that writing a clear, concise, and >> complete HOWTO is hard work. I don't say this to discourage you, but to >> point out that there's a reason why more HOWTOs aren't just out there to >> be plucked off the net. My advice is to start simple, and Speakup With >> Software Speech sounds to me like about the right task. >> >> I will tell you that I attempted to write a HOWTO for Speakup on Linux >> together with a professional tech writer from IBM. When the tech writer >> left IBM this project stalled--after over 6 months of work between us. >> That's when I took the pieces that I actually knew something about and >> created the Installation HOWTO for the Speakup Modified Fedora Core. >> >> Which reminds me, writing a HOWTO is only part of the job. The rest of >> the job is maintaining the HOWTO which means making new versions when >> new facts change the advice people need to have. >> >> >>
