Re: quo vadis, docs

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 17:24 +0000, Amondo Roquentin wrote:
> Matthias Clasen wrote:
> > - Is there anything that can be done, short of transmutating hackers
> > into technical writers at next guadec with the help of poisoned beer ?
> 
> May I suggest the short-term solution of associating each document with
> a GNOME version number that it has been tested against?

I've already developed a system for putting this information
into DocBook:

http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/StatusTracking
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2009-January/msg00028.html

> This way users will be able to understand if things look slightly different.
> 
> If necessary, disclaimers can be placed on a page indicating that some
> features may have changed since the document was published.
> 
> Alternatively, version numbers can be associated with sections within
> documents, if more granularity is required.
> 
> So for the Desktop User Guide, the Mouse Preferences page can list the
> version of GNOME it was last updated for.
> 
> If this information is deemed inappropriate for placing in the
> documentation itself, perhaps it could be placed in the wiki.

And this information is already being tracked in Pulse.
No need for a manually-updated, bound-to-get-out-of-date
wiki page.  Update your DocBook.  Pulse knows.

--
Shaun