Create glossary or maybe a ...textbook?

[alex-rsk]

Hello, gentlemen.

I have been reading these docs through year, and still vaguely understand some basic terms, which are using here.

And I suppose, that for new users of GPAC it would be a real challenge, to figure out, what is PID, SAP, SIDX, . etc.

Besides that, the tool is suffering from lack of examples with step-by-step explanation, what's happens.
The widely known ffmpeg at least sometimes clarify this in textbooks, which are rare but exist.

Also, excuse me for being straightforward, the English language in some topics is deplorable, and this is also reduce understanding.
So...
What do you think about to hire some technical writer, who would write a "Codex GPAC" for the sake of future and current users?
There is a big underestimation of GPAC, and mostly due to lack of information.

Sincerely yours

[rbouqueau]

Don't apologize for the bluntness. I think all of this is well-intentioned and actually fair.

@PierreDillard added a glossary (see on the right panel) some months ago. It may be incomplete though so feedback on a list of words that seem obscure may help. Maybe we could put it on your top post or create a google doc for a first iteration?

Apparently you didn't see this glossary so maybe we need some feedback on the UX too.

for new users of GPAC it would be a real challenge

I personally put a lot of effort on the on-boarding this year. GPAC has been growing, the technology stack has been growing... Last year we hired people to the point that individual explanation wouldn't suffice anymore.

A major tool to me is https://gui.gpac.io. It is not perfect though. I imagine it could be a central place for GPAC resources.

We may also need to build a cheap set of videos. If it is made by some who's paid it could be free, if it's done via the commercial effort then we need to find a fine line. Sustainability of open-source projects is always a concern.

lack of examples with step-by-step explanation, what's happens.
The widely known ffmpeg at least sometimes clarify this in textbooks, which are rare but exist.

We have cookbooks. Unfortunately not enough of them. We actually lack people explaining what they did with GPAC in blog articles or more forums - most of the examples are in the testsuite which is not user-friendly.

Again the gui, more community feedback (maybe incentives to share), tutorial videos, ... Any other ideas?

the English language in some topics is deplorable

Let us know and we'll fix it. I think we'd love to hire a technical writer but the project doesn't have resources to do so. If you're thinking of a way or someone in particular, please let us know.

There is a big underestimation of GPAC, and mostly due to lack of information.

Thanks for the kind words.

[nlsdvl]

@PierreDillard recently added support for tagging content with keywords and a glossary.

The wiki displays a tag cloud, with the possibility to define descriptions that show up when hovering a keyword :

The keywords can link to a glossary pages but these are not easily accessible. You have to look up the keyword on the tags page, and find the glossary page in the list of related content, eg. for Sink:

Glossary pages also show up in the results when using the search bar, but there is not really an entry point to the 'glossary' : https://wiki.gpac.io/glossary/

Contributions on the glossary and keywords are welcome :

• https://github.com/gpac/wiki/tree/master/docs/glossary
• https://github.com/gpac/wiki/blob/master/docs/data/keywords.json
• https://github.com/gpac/wiki/blob/master/content-tagging-system.md

Giving more visibility to the glossary and keyword descriptions may encourage contributions.