[Pan-users] Documentation (Was: Newbie Question)

[Charles Kerr]

On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 04:59:21PM -0700, Duncan wrote:

> This is getting to be a bigger problem, as the circle of PAN users gets 
> bigger.  There simply isn't a lot of documentation,

*cough*any*cough* :)

<snip>

> Charles.  I normally don't consider myself a writer, and a few years ago this 
> would have been unthinkable, but if I simply compiled a bunch of stuff into 
> an INSTRUCTIONS.README file or some such, would that be of use?  Some folks 
> in the various newsgroups I've participated in seem to think I do well at 
> explaining things, altho all the English Majors I've ever met seem to have 
> another opinion.  I've hesitated, both because I don't want to step on 
> someone else's toes and thought it was forthcoming, and because I do tend to 
> do best in a newsgroup (or list) type setting.  However, I'm beginning to 
> think even my poor efforts might be better than the nothing we have now, for 
> the most part.  If I did do this, I'd probably run stuff by the list as I 
> went.  It'd be my first time...  I can't promise I'll get anything done in a 
> reasonable time either, but if it wouldn't step on anyone's toes, I might get 
> some sort of something done, anyway.
> 
> Is there a framework already started, perhaps with some topics already filled 
> in?

The idea I was toying around with was to put up a Wiki web for the manual so
that people can contribute in an ad hoc fashion, and nobody has to manage
merging different contributions until later. I guess I could go dig up some Wiki
space tonight.

Here's the framework I worked up, rather hastily, the last time the topic
of Documentation came around:

introduction to usenet
   what usenet is
   what you can do with usenet
   where you can find a news server
      free
         http://news.cis.dfn.de/ free for the asking
         university
      commercial
         isp/cable/dsl (part of the package)
         http://www.vegasnet.net/~vegased/Server_GB_Cost.html
         why you need commercial for binaries
   links to other Usenet info, like ``usenet is still a strange place''
getting started
   getting pan
      pan.rebelbase.com/download/
      rpmfind
   installing pan
      rpm
      distros - rh, mdk, suse, etc
      ximian
      developers & the bleeding edge (CVS)
   running pan for the first time
      new user wizard walkthrough
      getting a group list
      searcing for groups
      subscribing to groups
reading articles
   "refresh counts" vs "get headers" vs "get headers & bodies"
   downloading articles
      reading
      navigation
      sorting
      icon/color descriptions
      filters
   offline newsreading
scoring
   [for 0.14]
posting
   extra headers
   charsets
   spellchecking
   sendlater vs. send now
   how to edit queued posts
menu overview (a walkthrough of the main menu and what the buttons do)
configuring Pan (a walkthrough of the preferences dialog & what the buttons do)
more resources
   FAQ
   the pan-users search engine
   pan homepage
   news.* hierarchy
   where to go for feedback, bug reports, etc.

In particular, don't spend much time on the filter or rule dialogs,
as they'll change in 0.14 to accomodate slrn's scoring system.

cheers,
Charles