[Radiance-general] Radiance documentation organization

[iebele]

Hi Greg

>
> Thinking about it for a bit, I opted for a functional organization  
> over an application-based hierarchy, simply because so many tools and  
> techniques are common to different applications, 

I think a functional organization fits the need of the user most, 
indeed. Applications and tutorials might be added to the end of the 
list, just for those who want to browse through them, which can be very 
learnfull for both beginners and experienced users.
Every search in the tree will end in some article. If just each article 
will end with related tutorials and applications, that in itself is a 
way of organizing tutorials and applications.

What might be added is an Installation chapter, which covers also 
different platforms, different shells and additional software 
developments like radzilla.

I don't know what you exectly have in mind, but as you say : "help, 
please!", using wikipedia  (there already is a small wiki about Radiance 
software) might be an option to have lots of us working on the same 
documentation. If those who now are active in this mailinglist spent 
just some time in writing articles and updating hyperlinks now and then, 
then over some years a real nice documentation will be just there. 
Wikipedia also has an option for creating Wiki-books as pdf.

Iebele


> Caveats aside, here's what I have:
>
> I. Input
>     A. CAD links and conversion tools
>     B. Photometry & Sky models
>     C. Generator programs
>     D. Scene processing (xform, replmarks, oconv, etc.)
>
> II. Computation
>     A. Rendering (batch & interactive)
>     B. Illumination calculations
>     C. Executive programs (rad, rayfront, etc.)
>
> III. Output
>     A. Image processing
>     B. Image viewing
>     C. Image format conversion
>     D. Graphing & plotting
>
> In addition, I suggest we include an alternate arrangement of  
> tutorial materials, which necessarily bridge these functional  
> boundaries.  I am hoping others can offer suggestions for how these  
> should be organized, as I don't even have a good list of tutorials  
> available.
>
> Some thought should also be given to how one might organize materials  
> from the Radiance workshops.  Again, the basic categories above will  
> be bridged or extended by many of the talks, and the chronological  
> arrangement we now have is of less and less use as time goes on.
>
> Help, please!
> -Greg
>
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