In this particular article, I broached the idea of forking the manual into two major sections:
- The "User Guide" manual. That is, all of the information about successfully using FlightGear that is not installation related.
- "Installation Guide" manuals - there would be specific and individual manuals for each major operating system supported by FG,
(i.e. the various 'nix flavors, Mac, Windows, et. al.)
My reason for wanting to do this - at least with respect to the older version of the FG manual I read - is that the installation instructions are a mish-mash of different instructions for differing platforms, with the lion''s share being 'nix-centric.
IMHO, this makes the installation of FlightGear a non-trivial exercise, especially for the non-linux user.
Ideally the installation guides should be expressed simply enough that someone at the "noob" level who wants to give FG a try would have an absolute minimum of difficulty getting FG running, configured, and a plane in the air.
I believe that bifurcating the manual into separate, independent, installation manuals will go far and do much to help overcome this barrier to entry.
Another valuable side-effect of forking out the installation instructions is that it places the various parts of a particular instal in much higher relief; allowing us to spot - and correct - systemic installation gaffe's that might otherwise go unnoticed.
What say ye?
Jim (JR)