[Insight-users] Suggestion -- New Memeber Welcoming Package

Sun May 30 09:30:51 EDT 2004

Hi Arash,

Thanks for your comments.

1) I agree with you that having HTML in parallel
    to PDF will help to have an easy start.

    We will look into exporting the
    "Getting Started I" session in HTML.

2) Regarding the "Annotated Class List":

    This has been provided by Doxygen on
    a nightly basis for several years now...

http://www.itk.org/Insight/Doxygen/html/annotated.html

    there is also the Alphabetical list of classes:

http://www.itk.org/Insight/Doxygen/html/classes.html

    there is a list of classes grouped by concepts:

http://www.itk.org/Insight/Doxygen/html/modules.html

    there is a list of all the method names in the toolkit

http://www.itk.org/Doxygen/html/functions.html

    there is a list of all the files

http://www.itk.org/Insight/Doxygen/html/files.html

    they are simply the options/link in the top menu
    of the main Doxygen page

http://www.itk.org/Insight/Doxygen/html/index.html

     These pages have been posted nightly since
     July 2001. I'm afraid that users simply don't
     take the time to browse the pages.

    We can add all this information to the Welcoming
    page... but then... it will be just a copy of
    the Documentation page:

      http://www.itk.org/HTML/Documentation.htm

3) CVS download instructions are already provided

       http://www.itk.org/HTML/Download.htm

4) Regarding the link from Classes to Examples:

    Well, that's what the SoftwareGuide Index is.
    When you take the PDF document and click on any
    of the entries in the Index, the hyperlink led
    you to the section where a coding example is
    discussed, and when you click on any of the
    class names in the text, it will take you to the
    corresponding Doxygen page.

    It is true, however, that we could be using the
    "\example" links naturally provided by Doxygen.
    Just to give you some historical background, when
    we started looking for a way of designing the
    SoftwareGuide we looked at Doxygen capabilities
    as the best first options for creating the entire
    book.  However, after a couple of tries it became
    clear that the far simpler mechanisms of inserting
    Latex code and splitting the files with a short
    Perl script was more effective, easier to write,
    and provided more freedom regarding the formatting
    of the document.

---

Here is the fundamental dilemma in documentation:

       When you provide too much,
              people just don't read it.    :-/

Regards,

    Luis

---------------------
Arash Jahangir wrote:

> Hi Luis,
> My congrats on a well developed started package.  It is clear and well
> organized.    I think if the getting started in HTML so that people with
> slower connection could just jump to their section, it could be helpful.
> Also, some info on CVS check out and pros and cons of CVS version would be
> good.
> 
> As to luring people to read the whole thing...that is a possible but hard to
> accomplish task, imo.  I personally have not had much luck with it.  So I
> make my docs in easy (and quick) to browse format and hope the painless
> experience encourages more/better reads of the rest of documents.
> 
> regards,
> Arash
> 
> PS Any plans for "Class to Examples" or annotated class list?
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Luis Ibanez" <luis.ibanez at kitware.com>
> To: "Arash Jahangir" <arash at vije.ca>
> Cc: <insight-users at itk.org>
> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 1:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [Insight-users] Suggestion -- New Memeber Welcoming Package
> 
> 
> 
>>Hi Arash,
>>
>>
>>Thanks a lot for you suggestion.
>>
>>We just put a first draft of the Welcome page.
>>
>>
>>     http://www.itk.org/HTML/Welcome.htm
>>
>>
>>It has very few entries in order to lure newcomers
>>to *actually read* the page.  :-)
>>
>>We hope that by visiting the "Getting Started I"
>>tutorial session, many of the newcomers questions
>>will be answered.
>>
>>
>>Please let us know if you have any other suggestions
>>
>>
>>   Regards,
>>
>>
>>      Luis
>>
>>
>>---------------------
>>Arash Jahangir wrote:
>>
>>>Hi Luis,
>>>I've noticed a lot of similar questions from new members.  Questions
> 
> like
> 
>>>"How do I connect to VTK" or "what libraries are there" seem to pop up
>>>rather frequently.  Nothing wrong with asking, but since they seem to be
>>>shared by many new members, may I suggest Kitware creates a Welcoming
>>>Package and email it to new members upon joining.  The package would
> 
> include
> 
>>>the top 5 (or 10) newbie questions along with links to the library
>>>resources.  For ITK this would be something like:
>>>
>>>1) There are no visualization functionalities in ITK; if you want to see
>>>your data, we suggest using VTK (link to VTK).  To learn how to connect
> 
> the
> 
>>>two, take a look at (link here).
>>>2) Here is the list of ITK Modules
>>>http://www.itk.org/Doxygen/html/modules.html
>>>3) Chances are your question has been discussed in the past.  You can
> 
> search
> 
>>>the FAQ (or archives) here
>>>4) More through documentation and courseware can be found here
>>>5) Here are some of the ITK related projects and resources (links)
>>>
>>>On a related note, I think if ITK documentation had pages similar to
> 
> VTK's
> 
>>>"Annotated Class List" and even better, "Class to Examples", it would be
> 
> of
> 
>>>interest to a lot of people, especially new members.
>>>
>>>just a thought,
>>>Arash
>>>
>>>PS  We discussed creation of tiling/mosaic framework to be shared with
> 
> ITK
> 
>>>community.  For now the existing ITK libs answer our needs as we have
> 
> fair
> 
>>>overlap between the images.  Should this change in the future, we'll
> 
> take
> 
>>>you up on your offer.
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Insight-users mailing list
>>>Insight-users at itk.org
>>>http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Insight-users mailing list
>>Insight-users at itk.org
>>http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
>>
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Insight-users mailing list
> Insight-users at itk.org
> http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
> 