[opencms-dev] open letter -- How to learn OpenCMS

[Tim Van Der Hulst]

Likewise I have read the book, the docs, and have been reading the email archives for a few months... we have implemented an OpenCMS system but I can't say I feel particularly comfortable with the whole experience. If the information exists (scattered) in the mailing archives then that information needs to be taken out and put into documentation. I would suggest to Alkacon, if they are paying programmers to work on development, to also include a full time tester/documenter or encourage more people to work on documentation or something.
 
Not to be ungrateful or anything, 
 
TiM
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Kriger [mailto:akriger at greaterthanone.com]
Sent: Thursday, 14 October 2004 5:13 a.m.
To: 'The OpenCms mailing list'
Subject: RE: [opencms-dev] open letter -- How to learn OpenCMS


To clarify, I am making a suggestion to help the growth of OpenCms. I have the book, I have read docs, I have searched the archives (maybe not made it my bedtime reading, but done a bunch of searching/browsing). However, OpenCms is a complex system and every little bit helps. 
 
For example, if you have a pointer to what an 'inclusion loop error' is and how it is caused, that would be great. This one comes up a lot (in my learning and in the mailing lists), but I haven't found an explanation of what it's all about. Without that understanding, I am not able to figure out how to address it, work around it, live with it.
 

  _____  

From: opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org [mailto:opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org] On Behalf Of Paul D. Bain
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 12:03 PM
To: The OpenCms mailing list
Subject: Re: [opencms-dev] open letter -- How to learn OpenCMS


At 09:46 AM 10/13/04, you wrote:



I am new to OpenCms and am trying to develop a web application using it. Over the past month or so, I have posted many messages to this list, but only received a few replies to various questions. I have also noticed in the message archives a lot more questions than answers. Open-source projects that do well usually have a good community behind them to help out new users, along with demos and good documentation. While, OpenCms has the best docs of any open-source CMS project I have looked into, I don't see enough help on the mailing list. 


        There is no shortage of help on this list. The problem does NOT lie with the OpenCMS developers or with the experienced users of OpenCMS. The problem lies with users who are too lazy to search the email archives, too lazy to read the documentation, or too cheap to buy Matt Butcher's excellent book on OpenCMS.

        When I began learning OpenCMS two years ago, I began by reading the official documentation. Then, I read every single email in the archives (for the prior six months) that had been posted by Alexander Kandzior, the chief architect of OpenCMS. Other posters whose emails contain valuable information include these:

        = Matt Butcher
        = Olli Aro
        = Mark Miller
        =  Stephan Hartmann
        = Rene Hinojosa
        =  Joachim Arrasz
        =  Thomas Marz

I suggest that you read the emails of these experienced users _very_ carefully. Their emails contain a great deal of supplemental, useful information. Do _not_ merely search the email archives. BROWSE them. READ them. They are a gold mine of information.

Sincerely,
Paul Bain



For example, a project like Resin, which has a very small team of developers, has its lead developer posting regularly to the mailing list to help people. 

I hope that Alkacon can devote more resources to monitoring the list and helping new users and thus grow the community of experienced users (who in turn can help people out on the list).

-andy kriger 


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