[Wtr-general] Community involvement with Watir

[Željko Filipin]

On 5/8/07, Bret Pettichord <bret at pettichord.com> wrote:
>
> I think one question Zeljko needs to address is what form he wants it to
> be. I think he said something about breaking it into separate files,
> which is fine. Another option is to migrate it to the wiki, which would
> make eat easier to get contributions from others...


I have been thinking a lot about updating Watir user
guide<http://wtr.rubyforge.org/watir_user_guide.html>these days, but I
did not have time to start working. I will have some time
next week (if not before). I think if user guide is migrated to Watir
Wiki<http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Project+Home>it would make
contributions much easier, so I plan to do that. If anybody
would like to start working on user guide before I migrate it to Wiki, go
ahead and grab it from Watir SVN
<http://svn.openqa.org/svn/watir>repository, make Wiki page and start
working. If you do not know how
to get it from SVN repository <http://www.openqa.org/watir/cvs.action> or how
to create Wiki page<http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Contributing+to+this+Website>,
please let me know.

I received a lot of good advice about updating user guide. There is a clear
need for more documentation on Watir. I do not think that everything should
be in user guide. My plan is to make user guide as short as possible and
provide links to more advanced topics. Something like:

   - Install Ruby.
   - Install Watir.
   - Open IE.
   - Navigate to a page.
   - Click a link.
   - Click a button.
   - Verify some text is there.
   - That was easy!
   - Want to learn more?
   - See how you can work with:
      - Other tags.
      - Various pop-up windows.
      - JavaScript.
      - AJAX.
      - Unit tests (running them, reading them, learning from them).
      - …
   - There is also lots of good documentation on Watir that *is* at our
   site. See:
      - FAQ
      - What is Ruby?
      - What is Watir?
      - Is there a difference?
      - Why should I care?
      - …
   - There is also lots of good documentation on Watir that *is not* at
   our site. Check it out:
      - Articles.
      - Cheat sheets.
      - Books.
      - …
   - Have question? We have mailing list! When posting a question make
   sure that you include:
      - Relevant snippet of your Watir code.
      - Relevant snippet your HTML.
      - Error message that Ruby gave you (if any).
      - See example question.

I think this short tips about posting to mailing list are very important. I
just hope people will read it.

I think we are ready for several Watir tutorials (at least two).

Take Ruby for example. It has
Pickaxe<http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/index.html>book
that you can have on your desk and not be embarrassed when you boss
takes a look at it. There is also Why's (Poignant) Guide to
Ruby<http://poignantguide.net/ruby/>.
I remember how my boss was surprised when he saw Why's book. I am sure he
thought I was joking when I told him that it is a book about programming.
(Hint: cartoon foxes shouting "Chunky bacon!".)

Watir user guide can have "enterprise look", but I would also like to create
one version with cartoon characters. I am sure there are lots of creative
people here and I hope they will show their creativity. If you would not
like to see cartoon characters in Watir user guide, please do let me know, I
will not put it at Watir Wiki. (I will put it at my blog and smile to my
jokes. Alone.)
Zeljko
-- 
ZeljkoFilipin.com
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