[albatross-users] Authentication/Login example for RandomModules

[Dave Cole]

>>>>> "Sheila" == Sheila King <sheila at thinkspot.net> writes:

Sheila> the docs. Although the comment information is presented
Sheila> elsewhere in the manual, cross-correlating is quite a chore
Sheila> for the newbie attempting to just familiarize themselves with
Sheila> and use the package.

>> You are not alone in finding the manual less than helpful as a
>> reference.  I have been (slowly) working on improving this.

Sheila> Not at all. I think the manual is impressive. RoundUp and
Sheila> Albatross are some of the most well-documented free software
Sheila> projects I've seen. Actually, even compared to commercial
Sheila> software.

Thanks.

Shiela> In fact, that is one of the reasons I selected
Sheila> Albatross to work with. (Not that there isn't room for
Sheila> improvement.)

I was going to delay this message until I had finished reworking the
entire templates reference chapter.  Andrew has been quite positive in
his reaction to the work done so far, so I am pressing on.  For the
people that are interested, you can have a look at the format that I
have settled on by looking here.

        http://www.object-craft.com.au/~djc/albatross/tag-ref.html

It is only worth looking through until section 5.2.2.12 (because that
is where I am up to).  I am trying to increase the granularity and
level of cross referencing in order to make information easier to
locate.  It is still first pass so I will be placing more detail in
some of the sub-sub-sections.

Some of the formatting is not right - finding directives that make
latex2html and LaTeX do the same thing is a bit hard at times.

>> If you have any suggestions about improving the manual, now is the
>> time to tell me.  I cannot guarantee that I will be able to fix
>> everything, but some things will be possible.

I would greatly appreciate positive or negative comments on the
structure in the templates reference.  I don't want to spend the rest
of my life trying to get this ready for the next release, but I do
want to make a substantial improvement.

Sheila> One thing that I would find helpful: consider alphabetizing
Sheila> the lists of functions/attributes in the places where the
Sheila> manual lists them all out for a particular class or module.
Sheila> In some of the diagrams I had to scan the list three times to
Sheila> convince myself that a certain function wasn't part of that
Sheila> class, as opposed to me just not seeing it there.

At one point I was considering placing a table like the one for
SimpleContext

        http://www.object-craft.com.au/~djc/albatross/pack-simplecontext.html

for all prepackaged classes in chapter 8.  Maybe the rows in the table
should be sorted by method name.

Sheila> Figure 8.16 is mislabled. i.e. the "caption" is incorrect.

Thanks for that.  Have fixed it in CVS.

Sheila> The manual would benefit from more examples of Random Page
Sheila> apps. You are welcome to use my example, or adapt it, if you
Sheila> think it would be useful.

Thanks.  I am going to concentrate on finishing off the documentation
for the release.  I will try to resist distractions...  Andrew, are
you able to have a look at the application?  Without seeing what you
have done I think that it would be worth either cutting back the silly
little popview application, or just adding a complete new application
to the Application Guide that uses a random page structure.

Sheila> If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Sheila> By the way, I'm sure I will still be around. I hope I haven't
Sheila> worn out my welcome or used up my quota of questions. ;)

It is pretty hit and miss at times :-)

- Dave

-- 
http://www.object-craft.com.au