Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Secret documentation and Python 2.4

[Naveen Manicka]

Hi Jan,

I would be very happy to contribute my documentation to the docs module.
I was just maintaining my notes for future reference. Didnt know if it 
would be helpful as documentation.
If it is going to be, I will be delighted to help out with the process.
How do I go about it?

Cheers,
Naveen

P.S: The python 2.4 requirement got into my notes since I was doing the 
exploratory work with gnuradio & python 2.4 in my lab and the other guys 
in my lab were going to blindly follow my installation notes. I was just 
setting a baseline of software versions, so I dont have to keep getting 
emails about the installation not working :-))))

> From: Jan Schiefer <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Secret documentation and Python 2.4
> To: Eric Blossom <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Hi Eric,
>   
> > This particular nugget of info is secreted in gnuradio-core/README ;)
> >
> >   
> >     
> I had long given up on README files, as I found them to mostly contain 
> trivial stuff. Maybe it is time to revise that policy :-).
>   
> > > Seems like this thing is a little underdocumented. How can we help?
> > >     
> > >       
> > would be most welcome.  Part of the problem you're seeing is that
> > folks have generated documentation outside of the project (no problem
> > with that), however, since it's not in our repository, we can't edit
> > it to make corrections, extensions, etc.  Besides Naveens's, we've got
> > the same problem with Dawei Shen's tutorial.
> >   
> >     
> Any chance that the authors of this external documentation might be 
> talked into contributing it to the docs module?
>
> Let me ramble a bit about the potential "customers" for more 
> documentation. Gnu Radio is really a great technology and significantly 
> lowers the barrier to entry to playing with SDR. However, the learning 
> curve is still pretty steep. Particularly as not everybody has the 
> knowledge or patience to resolve all the build dependencies, or the 
> money to buy an USRP. I am thinking of e.g. some hams that may have a 
> Windows PC, a little dusty programming knowledge but some exposure to 
> DSP concepts and plenty of motivation. The kind of motivation that you 
> get from reading the "Exploring GNU Radio" article. But there is a big 
> gap to "How to write a block". We are still very much in early-adopter 
> land here, and getting more people playing with this stuff would make a 
> big difference.
>
> So if there was this hypothetical binary distribution, I think it might 
> look like this:
> - gnuradio-core and audio-support in binary form, to be installed on top 
> of an existing Python install
> - Optional USRP support
> - A few How-Tos: Getting started (mini-Python primer, mini-SDR primer, 
> Running your first example program, Catalog of the existing examples, 
> Audio experiments involving your favorite MP3, Radio experiments with 
> downloadable waveform snippets, etc)
> - An easy ordering option for USRPs :-)
> - Commented/documented examples
> - The secret gnuradio-core library docs as HTML (or CHM on Windows)
>
> Basically, documentation for anything that you can do without a C++ 
> compiler, with a focus on How-Tos, examples and ideas for experiments.
>
> Does this make sense? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here? If so, any 
> other ideas on where to focus?
>
> Also, does this hypothetical binary distribution exist, or is somebody 
> maybe working on it?
>
> I haven't used docbook, but it doesn't exactly look like rocket science. 
> Any recommendations on authoring tools? (Please, let the answer not be 
> "Emacs, of course!"). Vex looked pretty promising, OpenOffice didn't 
> seem to offer much support.
>
> Cheers,
>     Jan
>