Re: [linux-audio-dev] documentation

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] documentation
From: Richard Dobson (RWD_AT_cableinet.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 05:17:30 EEST


Fair questions!

I wasn't speaking merely about audio applications. I have very few on my
Linux machine, at present, as it is a new installation, so I need to get
the latest versions of all sorts of things, before making detailed
up-to-date comments.

I have one example where I would really like to have an answer: having
installed Mandrake 7.2 (replacing an old but pleasant Redhat 6), I have
the problem that in the terminal (under KDE), different file types are
now colour-coded. As it happens, I totally hate this, and want
everything to be just black text on a white background, like it used to
be. One colour is a horrible bright green that is all but illegible.
NOWHERE can I find how to change this. There is a set of 'styles' I can
select, including "black on white", but this still gives me the colours!
GRRRRRRR!!!!!

If the answer is, hack into some obscure config file in some obscure
directory, and write or change some obscure command-string, then that
will prove my point. Basically, if the utility itself doesn't allow me
~easily~ to change the colours, or point me to a system tool that does,
that proves my point. It seems to assume that I will always want
colour-coding of some sort.

 
jMax, under Linux, still has no proper documentation, especially for new
users; it relies on them already being familiar with the MAX/MSP way of
doing things. This is being worked on, but there is quite a way to go
yet.

Silence (M Gogins algorithmic composition) is in great need of user
documentation; what is provided is very much reference-style, for expert
users.
Without that, you can get as far as launching it, and not have the
faintest idea what to do next.

Oh, and a configure script that told you what libraries are missing, and
where to get them from, in the error message, would be helpful. I tried
installing GLAME, but it failed to find Guile, even though the
application is on the machine. It is only through lurking on this list
that I understand (I assume) that I need to download the ~development~
libraries for it.

It's too late at night for more answers, I'll try again late morning...

Richard Dobson

Kevin Conder wrote:
>
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Richard Dobson wrote:
> >
> > Now I am well aware that Linux/unix inherits and gleefully preserves a
> > aura of obscurantism, with requests (often none too polite!) to RTFM at
> > every turn, but often the FM is incomprehensible unless you already know
> > what it means, and often the FM doesn't exist anyway. Where
> > documentation does exist, it often says things like "to un-mitigate the
> > interface manifold bi-furcation, de-synchronize the positronic
> > lambdoma". Fistly, it assumes you know how to do the latter, and
> > secondly, it assumes you know ~why~ you would want to do the former in
> > the first place.
>
> Please, could you provide some real examples?
>
> Could you provide examples of Linux audio documentation that you
> found to be unclear? (Please include URLs and passages that were
> confusing.) You mentioned missing documentation. What needs to be
> documented? Is there any incomplete documentation that you would like
> to see completed?
>
> Also, could you provide examples of documentation for an audio
> application that you found helpful? (Any program/any platform, just
> include a URL where the docs may be freely downloaded.) Did you find *any*
> good Linux documentation at all? If so, could you include its URL also.
>
> BTW: Did you report the problems you had with any documentation to
> its respective author? The author may not know there is a problem until
> someone reports it.
>
> === Kevin Conder

-- 
Test your DAW with my Soundcard Attrition Page!
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masrwd (LU: 3rd July 2000)
CDP: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masjpf/CDP/CDP.htm (LU: 23rd February 2000)


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