Shibboleth Developers

At 4:25 PM -0700 5/1/03, RL 'Bob' Morgan wrote:
> I think we have general agreement that the docs need to be broken up into
> smaller bits and support multiple paths through them, so this is on the
> right track.  I'm kinda skeptical about this custom-build approach though,
> since docs should be available both bundled with the package code and
> online from the web site.  Seems like a more traditional approach with a
> table of contents and hyperlinked chapters would be at least as effective
> and simpler to build.

I think that with v1.0 we'll have reached the point where a "one size 
fits all" approach to doc will no longer be sufficient. I'll still 
print the longer document, take it home, and sit on the deck and read 
it. But I don't think that, among the next group of deployers, there 
are many who will do that. Others will want to easily navigate thru 
the entire document, using hyperlinks. So they can see the parallel 
versions, and decide how to proceed. And other groups are likely to 
want a customized doc ("just tell me what to do", or newbies who want 
an easy shib install (1 hour) so they can get the flavor of it).

I think we're at the point where there's no longer a right answer. 
Unfortunately, we need to understand the different groups that are 
likely to try shib, and the needs of each group.

> Also, I think our direction should be to separate
> Shib docs from InCommon docs; your approach seems to link them together in
> the build process.

approaching this from the perspective of having different 
audiences... I'd suggest that the simple guides just default to club 
roadkill, and don't even mention federations. In the more advanced 
versions, we could introduce the idea of federations, and point to 
separate docs describing InCommon.

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