[documentation] handbook reorg

[puregin]

+1 - glad that someone has finally taken the bull by the horns, and I  
can't think of
a better person than sepeck.

     Let me know what I can do to help out...

     Djun

On 28-Dec-2005, at 7:04 PM, Steven Peck wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I've been pondering this for a while now and I have been following  
> various threads and #drupal-support for people finding information  
> in the handbook.  People get confused where to look for things.   
> I've never really had a good alternative to how it was setup.  The  
> existing setup really just carried forward into 'seperate' books  
> what was there structurally before.  I have pinged a few folks  
> offline on this and talked with Dries and Charlie.  So now let's  
> see see what everyone else thinks.
>
> I mean, I probably know it as well as anyone and I stumble across  
> oddities more and more.  Dated content and such, though with the  
> version tagging, it should help a lot. A lot of the existing  
> content has been rewritten by a few folks and the rest doesn't look  
> to be getting updated soon, so pruning (unpublishing) may be in  
> order.  If it's stale, then let's make it go away, it may get some  
> folks to get some new stuff in.
>
> It would be nice to do it before 4.7 too.  I was thinking of  
> suggesting .....
>
> +About Drupal+
> Stuff bout Drupal.  At this point this stays as is.  It needs a  
> detailed going over, but not by me at this time.
>
> +Installation / Configuration+
> If it can be done just by installing modules and without modifiying  
> anything or tweaked with php code, then it goes here (we don't need  
> 'upgrading' as a top heading, merely a section here). A lot of the  
> basic standard configuration can pulled into here.  The whole  
> modules section has developed nicely and can shine as a major part  
> of it.  How to select and install an existing theme.  Site recipes  
> can be moved here as well.  Perhaps a link to the case studies in  
> the About section can be added showing how some existing sites were  
> built compared to any generic recipes we have.  Best practices  
> would go here.
> If anyone actually starts writing and contributing documentation  
> targetted at newcomers, then a newcomers config guide would be a  
> section here.
>
> +Customization / Theming+
> This is the section where you go a bit beyond the basic download.   
> Have an intro page with an overview of the capabilities if you know  
> a bit of php, MySQl, etc.  Here is where all the snippets would  
> reside.  Pull the Theme developers guide out of the Developers  
> handbook.  The theme developers guide being in the developers  
> handbook confuses the hell out of folks and it can maybe help show   
> that themeing need not be developing, but knowing a little php or  
> css is needed.
>
> Once people get their install going what's the first thing they  
> want to do?  Build their own theme, not 'develop' code.  Now, it  
> will be in an obvious location.
>
> With the various snippets repository in full growth, perhaps it can  
> become a place for more articles and such.  This would be the  
> 'advanced site admin' section and perhaps we can lure people into  
> entry level dev stuff without them realizing what they are doing.
>
> +Developing for Drupal+
> Slight reorg only at this point, some stuff is not well organized  
> anymore given the various additions.
>
> +About Drupal documentation+
> Though this might be as well suited as a section in the About  
> Drupal area, it would be beyond the scope of my idea at this time.
>
> I would be willing to do the work this weekend (or Friday),  
> assuming I can schedule the time with my wife.  I figure a solid  
> couple of hours to move things (aliases would not be changed).  I'd  
> be available on IRC while doing this.  Then have a few someone's  
> follow through with a fresh eye for fine tuning and discussing over  
> the rest of the weekend.
>
> The intro to each section would have a paragraph about how to  
> contribute a page and what kind of content goes into the section.
>
> Let me know what you all think
>
> -sp
> -- 
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