Announcement of Git wikibook

I've create a git wikibook if anyone wants to help expand it. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Source_Control_Management_With_Git

On Oct 19, 2007, at 10:21 PM, Evan Carroll wrote:

I'm just curious. What is the advantage of a wikibook?

We already have a manual

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html

including a todo list

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html#todo

So, why don't you send patches improving the manual, but instead started a wiki book from scratch?

	Steffen

    There is nothing wrong with either of the two approaches. They
could both coexist but address different needs:
    -- the manual should be more oriented on technical issues and
addresses only the most recent versions;
    -- the book should be more user-oriented, and more general,
explaining how source management should be addressed by using git, and
maybe make comparisons with may other versioning systems. Also the
book could relate to many versions -- both old and new.

    Also I would note that the wiki book is more easy to edit... If
you spot errors or want to add something you just go and edit it and
the effect is immediate. But in contrast sending patches involves some
overhead...

    Ciprian.

On 10/19/07, Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de> wrote:

El 20/10/2007, a las 9:40, Ciprian Dorin Craciun escribió:

But Git already has its own easy-to-edit, official wiki:

   http://git.or.cz/gitwiki

Creating a separate wiki book seems like an unnecessary duplication of effort.

(Obviously, you or anybody else is free to contribute documentation wherever you want.)

Cheers, Wincent

Hi,

[please do not top post]

On Sat, 20 Oct 2007, Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote:

The problem: it is not just "the manual".  It is the "user manual".

I am torn. On one side I like the Wiki approach. On the other hand, the Wiki will get less review by git oldtimers, whereas the patches to user-manual are usually reviewed as thoroughly as the code patches.

Ciao, Dscho

On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 10:34:34PM +0100, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

No offense, but review by old timers can be both a blessing and a curse. Well, it's not the "review" that is so much a problem as the "editorial control." In my opinion (and I believe this is what the original poster was saying), the official Git User Manual focuses more on technical issues and less on introducing git to a new user.

This makes perfect sense given that it's edited by oldtimers, who are neither inclined nor particularly suited to explaining git to newbies; they have simply forgotten what it was like for these concepts to be foreign. They eat SHA1 hashes for breakfast and dream about index files. And that's great :)

I don't think the wikibook should try to duplicate the Git User Manual. That would be a wasted effort. But there is a niche to be filled in git documentation, particularly in regard to specific workflows and git best practices. With git, TMTOWTDI. It's quite difficult for a newbie to know which of those ways will come back and bite them in the ass down the road.

Of course, it is a wikibook, so it will go where it goes. I for one am glad to see this project started.

El 21/10/2007, a las 5:09, Steven Walter escribió:

But it's not an "intro", it's a user manual. That means it's supposed to be a comprehensive, in-depth treatment of just about everything. The technical content is a good thing; it's supposed to be the document you turn to when you want to move beyond superficial use to genuine, in-depth understanding.

There are other documents with the goal of "introducing git to the new user", grouped together here:

<http://git.or.cz/course/index.html>

And also under the "Documentation" heading on the Git home page:

<http://git.or.cz/>

Those are probably the articles that should be worked on and augmented if you care about introducing things to a newbie.

Cheers, Wincent

On Oct 21, 2007, at 11:10 AM, Wincent Colaiuta wrote:

But it could also have introductory parts and parts decribing specific workflows.

Something similar to svnbook or cvsbook would be perfect. I believe a reasonable goal is that you'll get all need if you search gitbook with google.

	Steffen