Documentation and YOU!

Greetings again everyone! For those of you steadily following the documentation updates, I have answers to some of your questions as well as a few new announcements. Let's get right to it:

A Peak Inside the Process

I'm sure most of you developers out there would rather know more about how our engines are developed, but the documentation process is slowly reaching the same level of difficulty and complexity. I'm currently staring at a big white-board that is covered top-to-bottom, left-to-right of documentation notes and deadlines that extends out to early next year...wow...

As I mentioned in my last blog, a whole system had to be developed to manage and improve the documentation for all of our products (Torque Engines). Beyond the tech, which involves developing a decent amount of php, html, and java modules, a routine schedule was necessary. What I work with is no ordinary schedule; I have a schedule for engine releases, a weekly development schedule, semi-monthly updates to the landing pages and official docs, and so on.

Bored yet? Well, this is the time to perk up. All that scheduling talk is not to garner pity (none of that "woe unto the poor doc writer" nonsense). This was my not-so-subtle way of stating, starting this month, there will be some kind of documentation related update every week of the month. If there are enough important changes, I will blog about them at the end of the month to make sure you know what to look for.

IRC Hour

This is an announcement I'm pretty excited about:

What It Is: IRC Hour is a chance for the community to have real-time talks with myself and our site admin, David Montgomery-Blake. The subject of these talks is to discuss official docs, tutorials, and possible community contribution. We will be using the GarageGames IRC channel hosted by MaxGaming OnLine.

What It Isn't: Debugging other people's code, marathon one-on-one help sessions, discussing the future of GG or Torque Engines, soap-box rants, etc.

Organization: Each session will focus on specific technology: TGB and TX will share one session, TGE and TGEA will share another. To maintain order, David and I will come up with leading questions that will determine the topics for each session. Due to the nature of IRC, patience and civility will be required to maintain order and convey everyone's thoughts.

When: Each session will happen on Thursday, at 3:00 pm (PST). To avoid complete chaos and lacking time for all the possible issues, we are going to have 2 IRC Hours a month.
- TGB/TX - 2nd week of the month.
- TGE/A - 3rd week of the month.

If the concept proves popular and attendance increases, we may split TGB and TX up into their own times. The first TGB/TX IRC Hour will happen on Sept. 11, and the first TGE/A will be on Sept. 18.

Purpose: Primarily, this will be another great source of feedback that can be used to improve documentation. Bonus benefits include: getting help with an official tutorial, venting directly to an employee about the state of the docs and tutorials, become a part of an official process in GG, and so on.

How to Contribute

Quite a few people have e-mailed me directly with feedback and helpful suggestions on the current docs. Some community members wish to go the extra mile by writing their own docs and tutorials. First off, that is AWESOME.

If you want my involvement in your documentation project, such as checking in on it, reviewing the material, performing a final pass, preparing it for the official docs, etc, here is how I suggest you start:

1. E-mail me directly (my address is found in my profile), with the word "Documentation" some where in the title.

2. In the e-mail, let me know who you are (if we haven't spoken before) and what you want to do. From there, I can start providing you with feedback and general direction.

For more details, please view this meta page: Official Documentation Submission Guidelines.

I want to stream line the process that will take your tutorials and documents and get them into official documentation. Afterwards, I will shine a bright and happy light on you and your work for the rest of the community to see.

Summary

There you have it, folks. I've peeled back another layer surrounding the new Doc System. . .you, the community, are a part of what makes the system work. It's a great cycle: documentation is written for you, and by providing feedback you help the documentation writing process.

David and I look forward to seeing you in the GarageGames IRC channel. If you have any questions about IRC Hour or writing docs, feel free to contact me at any time.

Until next time!