Documentation Tasks (was: beginner's questions)

[Hraban <angerweit@gmx.net>]

Berend de Boer wrote:
> I can't believe the latex docs are better. And consistency across the
> (docs of the) many packages??

They are better, because there are many buyable books on it,
even in german ;-)
But you are right: None of this books covers all packages,
and some packages are nearly undocumented.
But further there are more people you can ask...

> But could you be a bit more specific about "hard to find my way around
> it." Because that is at least true for one person in this world, and if
> there is one there are more. So if you can (try to) formulate what kind
> of documentation would have helped you, perhaps this situation can be
> improved.

I miss such a elaborated FAQ like the german LaTeX-FAQ, that covers 
really most questions.
I miss a table of the useable accents and symbols (math and other).
I miss german docs. (Sorry, my english is a bit poor, and complicated
matter is better to be understood without dictionary...)

I miss a how-to-use-fonts introduction for dummies. (That's a critical
point in LaTeX, too.) It should answer: What files for what type of
fonts are needed, how can I make/get them, where must they go etc.
I know that this is different on every system (and many of my problems
may be caused by my deficient knowledge of Linux/X)...

The beta manual could have hyperlinks (that would make its use easier).
Further: It lists not all options of the commands, but some are/seem 
nowhere explained. (You've to try around a while.)
Beside of these critics the beta manual is already better than many
LaTeX books! (Siep, you may like the Companion -- at least the german
translation is a bit chaotic.)

At this state I can't convince publishing professionals to work
with ConTeXt. Even if the local (La)Tex users group was excited
about the nice ConTeXt code -- they asked too much questions that
I couldn't answer or that I knew to be a problem (yet). And they
said ConTeXt would be known to be slow.

I don't only want to grumble -- I'm willing to co-work on the docs,
but I must find some time first... :-(
Thank you very much again, Hans -- I can't understand how you manage
to earn money beside all your helpful work! ;-)

Grüßlis vom Hraban!
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