[Insight-users] Is an ITK for Dummies planned?

[Luis Ibanez]

Hi Bill,

Well, we were hopping that the SoftwareGuide will
have a style general enough to reach people with
different backgrounds and different levels.

The extract that you quote is a clear evidence that
we still have to work more on the guide in order
to achieve that goal. I have to admit that without
the diagram that goes with the paragraph I have
trouble to read it myself, and I already got my
second afternoon coffee  :-)

We don't have plans to write an "ITK for Dummies"
at this point, but we will certainly rewrite the
paragraph that you just quoted !

Maybe we will move the current paragraph to a
footnote, and replace it with a more plain-language
version in the text body.

--

You will find in many places in the guide that it is
hard to provide plain explanations that are still
technically correct. So, the challenge is to write
text that can be read by dummies, and yet not be
considered incorrect by post-docs. Note that, among
the readers of the guide, we have the authors of
some of the papers on which the code has been based,
so we try to honor the whole range of readers.

We appreciate any feedback on the guide. This is
simply the approach of writing text as we write
open source code. The advantage is that is open for
criticisims and flexible for correction.


Thanks for pointing this out. Please let us know of
any other similar passages you may find when reading
the guide.



Regards,



   Luis


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

Bill Oliver wrote:
> I was just reading through the ItkSoftwareGuide and noticed
> a couple of things.  The first is that it is well-written.
> Congratulations.  The second is that it is aimed at a very
> sophisticated audience.
> 
> Consider the following paragraph:
> 
> "Pixel spacing is measured between the pixel centers and can
> be different along each dimension.  The image origin is associated
> with the coordinates of the first pixel in the image.  A *pixel*
> is considered to be the rectangular region surrounding the dirac
> delta holding the data value.  This can be seen as the Voronoi
> region of the image grid, as illustrated in the right side of the
> figure.  Linear interpolation of image values will be performed
> inside the Delaunay region whose corners are pixel centers."
> 
> 
> (Page 51)
> 
> 
> The good thing about this documentation is that it is precise,
> direct, and unambiguous.  If the average reader has a MS in
> Comp Sci, this would be perfect.
> 
> However, it *does* mean that the reader has to know what
> a Dirac delta is, what a Voronoi diagram is, and what
> Delaunay triangulation is.  If the reader does not, this
> paragraph is incomprehensible.
> 
> I know that, a long time ago, there was some talk about
> writing an "ITK for Dummies" book.  Was that ever done?
> 
> 
> billo
> 
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