Can I make some comments more or less agreeing with what has been said above about the structure rather than content, please?
The documentation is never going to satisfy everybody. Think of a 3d matrix which depends on the intended audience (X = Newbie, Intermediate, Expert, Developer), what they want to use Wings for (Y = doodling, virtual sculpting, games character building, math modeling..) and their learning styles (Z = visual, auditory, kinaesthetic**). Other dimensions no doubt exist. Filling that void completely is going to more complicated than developing the Wings software in the first place.
I think that the Getting Started, basic(!) concept notes, menu descriptions, simple primitives manipulation are key for those such as myself (- remember, you were a newbie once). So a document Table of Contents structure that relates to the interface would seem to be useful here. (- See the thread on Wings3d Help Dictionary which aims at covering the basics - I think). I hope we can assume most newbies are intelligent users, although that's difficult to define ***. So it doesn't have to be too wordy - just 'complete'. There are a number of good introductory tutorials out there, both text and video - just needs some organised & maintained links to them, in context.
Moving up the axis, intermediate users - and those that have 'got it' - already have the ideas, but need exposure to more advanced techniques. Here is the home for advanced concepts, really smart tricks, showcase modelling examples, i.e. the difficult, but sexy rewarding stuff. In my dreams ....
This is the area for such as the Tweak notes (which I find well written)
That said, optigon's starter list above is 'flat' with basics and advanced info at the same 'level'. So I'd go for a high level split of documentation into Basics and Advanced, with their own sub-pages, Table of Contents, etc.
In practice, the two documentation streams may overlap, hopefully without too much repetition or contradiction, but I think the style would be different. And probably written by different parts of the Community*.
Notes:
*"...so who's going to write it?
"
**kinaesthetic = learn by poking something.
***"your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick" Jethro Tull
The documentation is never going to satisfy everybody. Think of a 3d matrix which depends on the intended audience (X = Newbie, Intermediate, Expert, Developer), what they want to use Wings for (Y = doodling, virtual sculpting, games character building, math modeling..) and their learning styles (Z = visual, auditory, kinaesthetic**). Other dimensions no doubt exist. Filling that void completely is going to more complicated than developing the Wings software in the first place.
I think that the Getting Started, basic(!) concept notes, menu descriptions, simple primitives manipulation are key for those such as myself (- remember, you were a newbie once). So a document Table of Contents structure that relates to the interface would seem to be useful here. (- See the thread on Wings3d Help Dictionary which aims at covering the basics - I think). I hope we can assume most newbies are intelligent users, although that's difficult to define ***. So it doesn't have to be too wordy - just 'complete'. There are a number of good introductory tutorials out there, both text and video - just needs some organised & maintained links to them, in context.
Moving up the axis, intermediate users - and those that have 'got it' - already have the ideas, but need exposure to more advanced techniques. Here is the home for advanced concepts, really smart tricks, showcase modelling examples, i.e. the difficult, but sexy rewarding stuff. In my dreams ....
This is the area for such as the Tweak notes (which I find well written)
That said, optigon's starter list above is 'flat' with basics and advanced info at the same 'level'. So I'd go for a high level split of documentation into Basics and Advanced, with their own sub-pages, Table of Contents, etc.
In practice, the two documentation streams may overlap, hopefully without too much repetition or contradiction, but I think the style would be different. And probably written by different parts of the Community*.
Notes:
*"...so who's going to write it?
" **kinaesthetic = learn by poking something.
***"your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick" Jethro Tull