Hi All,

Well, the one thing I would say is that a bulk of the manual is
reference, while the other part act like a user's manual.  I don't
think anyone is expected to read the entire reference section, but
rather lookup an opcode here and there when one needs it.  One might
read most of the user's manual section in the beginning (sections I,
II, and II) to get an idea of how Csound works and families of opcodes
to get the big picture, then pick out opcodes here and there as one
needs it.

Just to note, I have 1257 opcodes listed when I do csound -z.  This is
with my local compiled version of Csound and does not include all of
the opcodes which are being built for release. I think some formatting
changes could certainly be done for the PDF version to bring down the
size, but we also have to face that there is a lot of information to
cover.

I just went to cycling74.com and downloaded the manuals for Max 4.6.
To note, the reference manual there is 724 pages and has quite a bit
of white space, opting to have each entry at the top of a page which I
think helps make it quicker to find IMO.  This manual has nice fonts
and layout which might be good to model the Csound manual on.  I think
if Max 4.6 came with as many object/opcodes as Csound, it may very
well have a similar number of pages for a manual if we include the
pages from the other PDF's there besides the reference (the
documentation there is split among a number of PDF's).

steven


On Dec 3, 2007 5:54 PM, Charles Gran <sonance@campdeadly.com> wrote:
> On 3 Dec 2007 at 16:36, Brent Boylan wrote:
>
> >
> > The manual is quite out of hand.
> . . .
>
> Yeah, but I'm not complaining really--considering how great Csound
> is, and that it's free.  But one has to admit that a 2,000 page
> manual (produced as a PDF no less, which would imply that it is is to
> be printed) is the kind of document only science people must be used
> to seeing.  Though I suppose there are some 2,000+ page documents
> people read . . . the Bible?  Is this manual bigger than the Bible?
> Nope, just checked.  The Bible is bigger.  Thank God!
>
> But a manual that musicians use?  I can't even get my students to
> read their harmony textbook, and that thing is about as long as an
> issue of X-MEN.  Big books that musicians read?  I don't know.
> There's that Taruskin book on Stavinsky.  I'm reading Alex Ross's THE
> REST IS NOISE, and he quotes Taruskin all over the place so I assume
> he read it.  But he's a musicologist and they LIKE to read.
>
> It would be nice to have a manual that one could get *in hand.*  That
> being said, it's probably better to have the programmers occupied
> with the program itself.  That's always the rub isn't it?  One has to
> know the thing to write about it.
>
> Grabbing a fistful of pages out of the box from reprographics, it
> does seem as though white space could be reclaimed and headings could
> use smaller fonts.  Also, there are these lists, like SIGNAL
> GENERATORS on p116 and following, that could definitely be typeset in
> a more contained manner.
>
>
>
>
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