Author Topic: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text  (Read 4951 times)

Offline Nocturnal

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Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« on: 2009 June 08 07:06:03 »

Hi Juan,

it's becoming difficult to find documentation for all the new features in the new PI releases. 'Documentation' in the forums really won't scale because the posts contain links to other threads which makes it confusing. I have two suggestions:

1) create a single release notes page outside of the forum that grows upward (ie. add new releases at the top of the page). When a new release gets added, copy the release notes there. Make sure these release notes are fully inclusive, containing only links to images, not to text elsewhere. Links to forum threads are ok for context but shouldn't be like "read this to find out how to use this new process". Each new process/script and radical change should have a paragraph to describe the changes.

2) include the text for each process inside PI with the process. Assume you module 'Debayer-pxm.dll' then there should be a file 'debayer-pxm.htm' somewhere that can be opened with a simple action. The first version of the htm file can contain the text from the release notes.

Using this tactic you'll have optimum use of the text you're typing anyway and people will be able to find it more easily.
Best,

    Sander
---
Edge HD 1100
QHY-8 for imaging, IMG0H mono for guiding, video cameras for occulations
ASI224, QHY5L-IIc
HyperStar3
WO-M110ED+FR-III/TRF-2008
Takahashi EM-400
PIxInsight, DeepSkyStacker, PHD, Nebulosity

Offline Stephane Murphy

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #1 on: 2009 June 08 07:28:15 »
Completly agree Sander, I spent a lot of time searching past post to find tips and tutorials. I started to create a master document so I can have all the information in one place.

Stephane
Stephane Murphy
CDK 12.5 Planewave Instrument
Paramount ME
SBIG STL11000M
SBIG ST-402 Guider
Astrodon MOAG
Astrodon Filters

Offline Juan Conejero

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #2 on: 2009 June 08 10:15:26 »
Hi Sander,

I agree with both ideas. The Browse Documentation button on the Process Explorer window (expand the right panel by clicking the two blue arrows icon) is precisely intended to implement a feature very close to your point 2). It's just that I haven't had the time to put all necessary things together (do I sound like a record? :) ).

I'll try to implement this, or something close to this, in upcoming versions. Thank you for your clever (pix)insights, as always ;)
Juan Conejero
PixInsight Development Team
http://pixinsight.com/

Offline Nocturnal

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #3 on: 2009 June 08 10:41:17 »
Hi Juan,

terrific! I think the idea is to start adding documentation going forward and to pull information currently hidden in the forums into a more readily available place. So don't feel it has to be perfect right away but let's get started now. Well, after you catch your breath from pushing 1.5.2 out the door :)
Best,

    Sander
---
Edge HD 1100
QHY-8 for imaging, IMG0H mono for guiding, video cameras for occulations
ASI224, QHY5L-IIc
HyperStar3
WO-M110ED+FR-III/TRF-2008
Takahashi EM-400
PIxInsight, DeepSkyStacker, PHD, Nebulosity

Offline Nocturnal

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #4 on: 2009 June 08 19:21:10 »
Hi,

Just to illustrate, I searched for backgroundneutralization and colorcalibration in the forums and neither produced a hit. I was trying to fold these processes into part 2 of my tutorial series but I don't understand them well enough yet to do so. BN is pretty easy but CC takes some more fiddling. Or my images are perfect and don't require adjustment but that's unlikely :)

So my suggestion is to not patch this problem but to fix it. Let's have the next step be these release notes I mentioned. Module specific documentation (I saw the greyed out buttons just now :) ) is really nice but I don't think we should wait till the next PI release to collect at least rudimentary documentation for the new features, right?

PS maybe I didn't search correctly  O:)
Best,

    Sander
---
Edge HD 1100
QHY-8 for imaging, IMG0H mono for guiding, video cameras for occulations
ASI224, QHY5L-IIc
HyperStar3
WO-M110ED+FR-III/TRF-2008
Takahashi EM-400
PIxInsight, DeepSkyStacker, PHD, Nebulosity

Offline Stephane Murphy

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #5 on: 2009 June 08 20:37:24 »
FYI, if you search from http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php (outside any specific topics) then I am getting many hits for backgroundneutralization and colorcalibration .

Stephane
Stephane Murphy
CDK 12.5 Planewave Instrument
Paramount ME
SBIG STL11000M
SBIG ST-402 Guider
Astrodon MOAG
Astrodon Filters

Offline Nocturnal

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Re: Release notes archive, a suggestion for help text
« Reply #6 on: 2009 June 09 05:57:00 »
See, that's what I was doing wrong. The search page didn't hint that I had restricted my search like that. Sorry!
Best,

    Sander
---
Edge HD 1100
QHY-8 for imaging, IMG0H mono for guiding, video cameras for occulations
ASI224, QHY5L-IIc
HyperStar3
WO-M110ED+FR-III/TRF-2008
Takahashi EM-400
PIxInsight, DeepSkyStacker, PHD, Nebulosity