From: Ken Pooley <kpooley@sewanee.edu>
To: "'midgard@greywolves.org'" <midgard@greywolves.org>,
To: "'jeff@linux.com'" <jeff@linux.com>
Subject: MWS, 11th of October, 2000 (#49)
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 14:33:39 -0500

Greetings!

There is a lot going on behind the scenes in the world of Midgard. The
first version of the Midgard 2.0 requirements document has been released
along with a rewrite of the documents for 1.4. The final touches of 1.4 are
being finished as David Guerizec rewrites the Admin interface. We should
see one last beta release of 1.4 before the final candidate is released.


Contents:
Editor's Note
1.4 documentation, 2.0 requirements, and your contributions..
	- Two new documents and a place for your input.
Asgard is almost ready for public preview.
	- Most of us will have to do it eventually, planning a roadmap from 1.2.x 
to 1.4

	

============================
1.4 documentation, 2.0 requirements, and your contributions.
----------------------------

Over the last few weeks two new important documents have been released on
the Midgard-project.org website, along with a new Midgard feature which, in
addition to being very cool, allows the user community to contribute
directly to the development and editing process. All of these can be found
at the link on the homepage called Annotation Forum,
http://www.midgard-project.org/topic/352.html

Jean-Phillipe Brunon, of Aurora, released the Midgard 2.0 requirements
document. While those who have followed the various discussions of the
wants and needs will find few surprises in the requirements documents, the
big picture provided by a comprehensive overview is invaluable. The
document is a good summary of where we are at this point with
Midgard. There are early sections devoted to what 1.4 is, as well as a good
assessment of the limitations inherent in Midgard 1.*. In response to the
limitations of 1.4, Brunon offers a point-by-point series of requirements
that 2.0 must meet to be successful, as well as a concise table of
technical requirements.  The requirements document provides contextual
landmarks by which progress and quality can be measured over the course of
the development life cycle.  That same context also provides a framework
into which feedback from the extended Midgard community can find meaningful
and useful placement...but more about that later.

Last week, Ron Parker released the first version of the new complete
documentation for version 1.4. The Midgard project has suffered from
incomplete documentation almost from the start. Over the last few months,
though, Ron Cedric Musso, Simon Kerr and Armand Verstappen have all done a
great job of putting together a comprehensive framework for a complete set
of documents as well a function reference which covers all of the new
functionality of 1.4. Ron, and the other writers, as been working at
following a fairly disciplined work flow with a goal of arriving at a
document which is easy to use, predictably structured, and, most important,
easily answers the questions put to it. Notable in this document are a
number of contextual documents that provide a better basic understanding of
why Midgard does what it does and how it gets the job done. Combined with a
complete function reference, the 1.4 manual is a much more comprehensive
document and should prove much more useful to new users.

In both cases these documents represent a lot of work for the authors but
also the work of the extended Midgard community. A lot of what we are
seeing in 1.4 and in the plans for 2.0 comes in response to the suggestions
and demands of the list serve over the last year. The annotation feature in
the new website is a direct response to the integral role of the community
in the development process. Annotation is a feature written by Emile in
response to the need for enduser participation in development. This feature
is an easy add-on script and is applicable to 1.2.* and 1.4. The goal of
this addition is to solicit feedback and input from endusers as they work
with the docuements. Suggestions, input, and corrections will be considered
by the editorial staff and included as appropriate into the main
body of the work.


============================
Asgard will be available for public preview soon.
----------------------------
The first beta version of the new administrative interface
will soon be available for preview. David Guerizec has been
working away on a ground-up rewrite of the admin site. The
site implements the all of the new features of Midgard 1.4 but
also adds a number of new features which build on 1.4's new
functionality. A clean look and more navigation aids should
make running a Midgard installation even more efficient.
Asgard also includes a number  of customization features
which will make the end user experience smoother.

Asgard is one of the last major parts of 1.4 to be finished before work on
a final candidate release is started. We should expect that one more beta
version will be released.
============================

About Midgard



Midgard 1.4 is a content publishing tool for small and medium sized sites. 
It is based on Apache, MySQL and PHP. The application and its documentation 
are licensed GPL, LGPL and GFDL. This licensing strategy guarantees that 
developers, webmasters, ISPs, and business managers are investing in a 
strategy where they're free to share solutions and participate in the 
application design.

-> http://www.midgard-project.org



----------------------------



About MWS


The Midgard Weekly Summary is a bi-weekly newsletter
for the Midgard user and developer community,
as well as the extended web community.
If you would like to release it or publish it,
please contact Ken Pooley
(kpooley@sewanee.edu).


Previous issues of Midgard Weekly Summary can
be found archived at the Midgard web site.
-> http://www.midgard-project.org/topic/169.html



Midgard mailing list.
The Midgard mailing list is one of the most vital and
visible aspects of the Midgard Community. Questions
get answered, suggestions debated and work gets done.
E-mail:midgard@greywolves.org


----------------------------
Places to see Midgard in Action:
http://www.midgard-project.org
http://www.hklc.com
http://www.5fthigh.com/
http://www.linuxde.org/
http://www.hec.nl/
http://www.stonejobs.com/

-More to come


============================