Re: Gnome 2 infinity and beyond [was Re: Tango and 2.16]

[Brent Smith <gnome nextreality net>]

Chris Lahey wrote:
> At conferences and LUGs, the marketing message is always about the 6
> month release and the idea of just putting off features until the next
> version, but what if we combined the two ideas?  Have a release every
> 6 months as we have been, but plan a set of features for 3.0 and when
> we hit that set of features, we change the numbering.  Say we pick a
> set of features and in 2008 2.21 happens to match that set of
> features.  Instead of going to 2.22, we go to 3.0.  Nice and easy.
>
> Then we pick a set of features for 4.0 and so forth.
>
> What do y'all think?
>
>   Chris
[snip]

I think if we are targeting features, one of them has to be a sane
documentation system and better documentation[1] including information
such as customization of GNOME for ISVs.

IMHO, we can't even start to think about GNOME 3.0 (or otherwise)
without addressing this issue.  Shaun has thrown out quite a few ideas 
such as topic based help via Project Mallard[2], library.gnome.org, etc. 
 Yelp has seen some love lately but is sorely in need of an API 
overhaul and we still depend on scrollkeeper which is a huge pain in the 
ass.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of developer interest in this aspect of 
the desktop.

Fixing this problem would be a great way to "reinvent" ourselves for a 
GNOME 3.0.

I would like to encourage interested hackers to discuss on 
gnome-doc-devel-list.

my three cents.

--
Brent Smith <gnome nextreality net>
IRC: smitten

[1] http://live.gnome.org/DeveloperGuides
[2] http://live.gnome.org/ProjectMallard