Hello All,
Thanks for the feedback received about how to progress the Base Guide.
Based on my current understanding of its status, I would like to make
the following two suggestions:
(1) That we issue a 7.2 Base Guide within the next few days. I’m happy
to collate the book based on the existing 6.4 chapters (but within a 7.2
style template), apart from the Preface. My suggestion is to update the
Preface so that:
a) It does not have a statement explaining that the Firebird
implementation within Base is “full of bugs” on its first page, and
b) It has a greater level of consistency with the prefaces to
other LibreOffice guides, and
c) It includes a statement that there are no significant changes
from 6.4.
In my opinion, the fact that there is no significant software change
since 6.4 justifies this approach and, if there is no dissent, then I
can create this book rapidly.
(2) That we look to implement a relatively significant update to the
Base Guide to coincide with a later build of software. This may involve
restructuring and other changes, as have been identified in emails on
this list during the past few days. I would be happy to start work on
this and coordinate the production of such an update.
The reviewing work that has been done so far (primarily by Felipe and
Dev) will be extremely useful for improving the material in this book.
Many thanks to them for that work. It might be worth pausing the review
of the Base Guide chapters while we gather our thoughts on what should
be done to the document. Ideas can be exchanged through this email list,
or via the Documentation Team meetings.
Please let me know if anybody is unhappy with this outline approach or
would like to suggest something different.
Regards,
Steve
On 02/12/2021 01:41, Felipe Viggiano de Souza wrote:
Hello Steve,
Just uploaded a first review of the BG7002 and checked out the BG7204.
Since I do not have any experience in the LO Base, I have just made
some superficial suggestions.
About your considerations:
i. There were some reference to bugs and a lot of pictures without
caption.
ii. As far as I could tell, the features are pretty much the same for
this chapter, didn't notice some significant change (I'm referring
only to the GUI, can't say much for the code presented).
Are we planning to deliver the Base Guide still in 2021? Asking this
because, if not I think we could use some second reviews on these
documents.
Best regards,
Felipe Viggiano
Em 29/11/2021 08:20, Steve Fanning escreveu:
Hi Team,
During the past few days, I have spent some time looking at the 6.4
Base Guide as we begin to review and update it. Unfortunately, if we
are to improve the quality of the book then the task may involve
significantly more effort and time than we at first anticipated.
This conclusion has been drawn based on my work to date and is a
result of the following main factors:
* Previous emails have noted that the document would benefit from a
refresh of the figures. What I hadn’t considered was that the “user
data” within many of the figures is based on German examples, which
isn’t ideal for an English language document. I have also found that
the structure of the example “Media_without_Macros” database doesn’t
quite match the figures in Chapter 3 (Tables). Hence there is
additional effort needed to re-work some of the underlying sample
databases to review their structure and include English data.
* When reviewing the early sections of Chapter 3 (Tables), I was
surprised by the level of change necessary to get the detail correct
for 7.2. We can only assume that this is also the case in other
chapters (maybe Felipe and Dev could comment on whether Chapters 1
and 2 follow this trend).
* I was a little shocked when I found out how many bugs are explicitly
referenced in the text, with links to Bugzilla, and this feels like
it could be a marketing disaster. Just to give an idea of the scope
of this problem, I found specific references to the following bugs
within the text 46180, 51452, 51453, 51959, 53027, 61871, 73707,
80320, 82411, 82591, 87290. Also, statements like “Firebird engine
is very good, it is its implementation in base which is full of
bugs” and “The Report Builder is somewhat treacherous in use, as
certain functions are available in theory but don’t work in
practice” may be true but don’t create a great impression.
* Discussion in the mailing list has indicated that we should update
the technical content of the document in a few areas (e.g.,
comparison of HSQLDB and Firebird; "Auto Grow" feature in reports;
changes to Writer and maybe Calc may affect discussions of the
interaction between Base and other LO components).
* Previous authors and editors believed that the document should be
re-structured (see for example
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Development/User_Guide_Tasks#Base_Guide).
I don’t think that all the above can be addressed quickly. Therefore,
to make rapid progress (and complete the set of 7.2 guides), should
we issue the 7.2 Base Guide simply as a cosmetic update to the 6.4
version? The ODT files have already been updated to the LO7 style and
the 7.2 book covers are available. With no substantial change then
there should be little reviewing required. However, I have already
prepared an updated Preface and it might be worth including that.
Meanwhile we can continue reviewing/improving the material in
preparation for a future update.
All views would be very welcome.
Regards,
Steve
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