An Open Source Fascicule

NetBeans community docs wiki is a collaboration space for NetBeans users and developers. It is home to excellent documentation regarding all aspects of NetBeans and provides young developers around the world the much needed kick start as far as diving into NetBeans field is concerned. I as a novice started learning NetBeans using the articles, tutorials and tips and tricks provided in an excellent way in the Docs.

Now I have myself contributed two tutorials to the Community Docs ( RMS Tutorial and Opening images within NetBeans ). It was at this time that the thought passed my mind..

NetBeans Community docs has played a significant role in marketing and popularising the NetBeans IDE specially among the student community (I have experienced it first hand). More and more people are now willing to contribute back to the community and NetBeans in general through tutorials, articles, Tips etc.

Now writing a Doc can be a labourious affair ,I had to open three things simultaneously while writing them:
1. NetBeans IDE to develop and execute the project.
2. Word Document to type in doc.
3. MS Paint to view and edit the screen shots....

Also finding the right guide or tutorial on the WIKI can sometimes be frustrating affair, and many times you dont find what exactly you want even if its there.

So why cant the developers think of providing support for Community Docs within the NetBeans IDE for the next version??
How about a seperate tutorial template that will have facility for typing the tutorials within the IDE according to the standard specifications, including support for managing and editing screenshots, and finally uploading the tutorial on the WIKI all done easily from within the IDE!!

Along with the tutorial support, the IDE can also maintain an index or a qiuck guide kind of a thing that will directly supply the user with the available list of tutorials on any topic of interest. This will not only save the browsing time for the newbies, but will also be helpful and time saving for experienced developers who might get stumbled on silly issus that need to be polished up.

Something to think upon right??

Well when I searched for such a thing I came to know that a Tutorial Module has already been proposed by Ankit Jain, Sumeet Singh & Varun Nischal where in they plan to make a tutorial template for easily posting tutorials.

I think this is a great idea that could be seriously considered by the developers for the next versions.. Hope you agree!