[LON-CAPA-dev] Help text

[Gerd Kortemeyer]

Good idea! A built-in Scott would certainly enhance the system. I would suggest
that on the screen, you could manifest yourself as a paperclip - "It looks like
you are writing a randomlabel problem."

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/clippy/default.asp

Correction: put header routine in loncommon ... better?

Anyways, besides the special help on special stuff (you all convinced me!), does
the link to FAQ make any sense?

- Gerd.

Scott Harrison wrote:

> I was actually going to place myself inside lonnet since
> everything else is there. :)
>
> Gerd Kortemeyer wrote:
> >
> > Hmm ...
> >
> > I actually had the following idea a little while ago:
> >
> > We will put new headers on the admin pages anyway, so there will be a
> > header-producing routine in lonnet. It will look something like this:
> >
> > $r->print(&Apache::lonnet::pageheader('Spreadsheet','grading'));
> >
> > and puts up the correct role header. For "advanced" users, it also produces a
> > "Help" and a "Bug" link.
> >
> > These do not go to a third all-new structure, but just go a the FAQ and
> > Bugzilla. There is a table in the system like this
> >
> > grading    134    Instructor+Interface
> >
> > which means that these links will go to
> >
> > http://help.loncapa.org/fom/cache/134.html
> > http://bugs.lon-capa.org/buglist.cgi?component=Instructor+Interface
> >
> > - Gerd.
> >
> > Scott Harrison wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Matthew:
> > >
> > > > Well, I doubt there will be so many help pages at first that we cannot
> > > > easily add in any tags needed for indexing.  I think it is more valuable
> > > > at this time to actually have help pages.  What metadata do these pages
> > > > need to have in order to be indexed automagically?
> > >
> > > The only "metadata" would be title and hierarchy.
> > > The target directory location would be the hierarchy... (maybe we don't
> > > want a hierarchy, but anyways...) for instance:
> > > + Instructor Tools
> > >   + Spreadsheet
> > >   + Plotting equations
> > >   + RAT
> > >   + Class lists
> > > + General information
> > >   + Remote control
> > >   + Roles
> > >   + Answering Problems
> > >
> > > (And of course, this should be in sync ... and draw from ...
> > >  help.lon-capa.org).
> > >
> > > And then, students may not want to be bothered with instructor
> > > tools...
> > >
> > > >
> > > > >(Ideally, the interface help pages would streamline nicely
> > > > >down the vertical partition toward the actual documented
> > > > >code base.  But...priorities...priorities..)
> > > > I have no idea what that means :)
> > > >
> > >
> > > Pressman, Rumbaugh, etc; a lot of standard books on
> > > software engineering talk about horizontal layers
> > > and vertical partions.
> > >
> > > Horizontal layers "make sense of the system".
> > > That is to say, they are the levels of computer services
> > > that exist.
> > >
> > > For example,
> > >
> > > ---------- LON-CAPA web interface ------------------------
> > > ------------- Apache::* libraries ------------------------
> > > ---------------- mod_perl --------------------------------
> > > ----------------- apache ---------------------------------
> > > -- shared libraries (including CPAN libraries) -----------
> > > ----------------- kernel ---------------------------------
> > >
> > > Contrastingly, vertical partitions are how the software
> > > design proceeds across the horizontal layers to provide
> > > user services.
> > >
> > > So, restated, ideally, there would be a clear path from each
> > > LON-CAPA interface to the source code documentation
> > > that was involved in presenting and processing information
> > > from that interface.
> > >
> > > Testing might ask, horizontally:
> > > * are all the kernel and shared libraries present that
> > >   need to be present
> > > * is the web server running in the right configuration?
> > > * mod_perl, is it working?
> > > * are all the CPAN libraries present?
> > >
> > > Vertical partitions might ask, testing-wise,
> > > is the metadata database interface working
> > > and what is all the source code involved with it?
> > >
> > > The testing strategy that I have been trying to find
> > > time to implement is:
> > >
> > > Horizontal layer testing in:
> > > loncom/build/system_dependencies
> > >
> > > Vertical partition testing in:
> > > loncom/build/weblayer_test
> > >
> > > Anecdotally...
> > >
> > >     we are all part of the matrix. :)
> > >
> > > The blue pill or the red pill?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Scott
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > LON-CAPA-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
> > > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-dev
> >
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