[Ipe-discuss] several questions

[Joseph Slater]

> On Dec 9, 2016, at 5:49 AM, Otfried Cheong <otfried at ipe.airpost.net> wrote:
> 
> No, there is currently no PDF manual, and there won't be until I have
> time to do a thorough revision.  I was planning to do that this year,
> but now it looks as if it has to wait until my next sabbatical.
> 
> If you want to search the full text of the manual, I suggest you google
> for "keyword +site:ipe.otfried.org".
> 
> The manual is very much out of date (see above).   I simply do not have
> enough time to give it a proper overhaul.
> 
> What Ipe can use very much is for users to contribute tutorials (or new
> sections for the manual, which I would be happy to include).   The Wiki
> is always open for such contribution.
> 

Let me second this. I am an occasional (perhaps rare) user of IPE, but certainly appreciate it being there when I need it. 

I emphatically request that those who use the package and aren't otherwise donating time to the broader community assist Otfried with what they can. That can be helping new users with simple questions, cleaning up the wiki, adding what you may have learned, addend examples as he pointed out, or delving deeper as your knowledge goes. I've run a wiki (MacTeX) for many year, and it becomes exhausting. Just a handful of helpful people can be of tremendous assistance. I have some open source software (tied to my field of study) and the lack of help caused development to grind to a slow crawl. Only when an interested student jumped in eager to help (not a student I knew, but from another continent), did development take off again. It reinvigorated my enthusiasm and breathed new life into the project. 

Outstanding projects resulting from the selfless efforts of volunteers like Otfried depend immensely from the contributions, large and small, from everyone who can. So, to all of you out there leveraging open source/freeware who have not contributed, please take a few moments to step up and lend a small helping hand. Your contribution will help other users, encourage the author and other contributors, and you will reap the reward of a sense of accomplishment. 

Best Regards,
Joe Slater
https://github.com/josephcslater