[ProgSoc] TFM: Time For Modification Redux

Roland Turner raz at raz.cx
Tue Nov 10 13:10:04 EST 2009


Tomislav Bozic wrote:

> I have considered the possibility of setting up a wiki, so as to make the
> editing/creating process more accessible and simpler for other people who
> may not feel comfortable with version control software and text formatting
> languages. After all, wikis have become immensely popular since the
> previous TFM came out and it's pretty much the standard for collaborative
> content creation today.

This does appear to be a situation in which the technology has moved so 
far and so quickly as to render older approaches irrelevant...

 > I've decided against this approach for two main
> reasons. Firstly, the content will have to be converted to LaTeX - whether
> by hand or with a wiki-to-LaTeX conversion program - so that it may be
> typeset and printed.

Surely wiki pages can be rendered at some convenient resolution 
(1200dpi?) in some convenient format (print-optimised PDF?) and the 
resulting raster simply fed to the printers? Is separately performed 
typesetting actually a requirement?

> Secondly, at the risk of sounding elitist, I will
> put it bluntly: if you don't know how to use software such as SVN or
> LaTeX, or at the very least, are not willing to learn how to use them,
> then you are not the kind of person that should be writing for TFM in the
> first place.

Harsh. Self-defeating for chapters that aren't about LaTeX or SVN and it 
eliminates the immense benefits that turn out to exist in allowing 
reviewers/readers to make small corrections fast.

This is a bit of the compiled/non-compiled language problem for FL/OSS 
projects; softening the learning curve is a major enabler for gaining 
the resources to get the job done. If TFM had a "too many people trying 
to improve it problem" (whatever that would mean) then sustaining/adding 
barriers would be sensible, but my recollection is that the problem 
tends to be the other way around.

- Raz



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