Re: A GNOME Handbook on writing software documentation

[Dan Mueth <d-mueth uchicago edu>]

  This sounds like a great idea.  I have been considering contributing to
the GDP but feel there is a bit of a threshold to get over.  Perhaps you
could include a section "Getting Started" which would address these very
basic questions:

1) DocBook - where to get good RPMs, where to get documentation on using
DocBook, what tools do people use with DocBook? (just a text editor?)

2) Picking a package - how to find out what packages _don't_ already have
somebody sprucing up the documentation (to avoid duplicating work or
stepping on somebody's toes.)

3) Getting the latest docs - Where can you get the latest docs, to avoid
sprucing up outdated docs? (cvs? - if so, maybe a very brief intro to how
to grab a cvs doc is in order)

4) What to do with your finished improvements - Do they go in cvs
somewhere?  Who makes sure they get included into the next release and
how?  Should one contact the authors of the software to check for
technical accuracy?

These additions to the Handbook would make the learning curve for new
documentation writers much easier. I would be interested in working on
some docs as soon as I can figure out the answers to these questions.


Dan


> Hello, fellow gnomers! The newest EarthTone incarnation: a handbook on
> writing documenation. I thought it would be a good thing(tm), so I threw
> together a skeleton of what it could possibly look like. Does something
> like this already exist? If not, tell me what you think...I'd like to
> complete this ASAP. Also, if you haven't already,
> take a sneak-peek at the GNOME Documentation Project's website,
> currently housed on my server at www.bionode.com/gnome. Eventually we'd
> like to get it moved to the main GNOME site, but this'll do for now.
> 
> EarthTone.
> 
> P.S. - writers, if you have anything you'd like posted on the site, let
> me know (webmaster@bionode.com) - I'll get it up right away.
> 
> 
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