Re: 1.4 updates

[Dan Mueth <d-mueth uchicago edu>]

Michael has a good idea here.  We should do this by declaring system-wide
entities which fill in some of this boiler-plate text.  In his example, we
would need two entities, one for the doc comments/bugs and one for the app
comments/bugs.  Not only does this make it easy for Sun to have its
customers send bug reports to them if it likes (we will need to separately
discuss how to share bug databases), it also makes it easier for the GDP
to update all of its docs simulataneously.  We should similarly produce an
entity which we use in the license section at the end of each doc.

How should we do this?  We could use parameter entities in the DTD, but we
should very strongly avoid this IMO since it means we are no longer
strictly DocBook-compliant. So, unless I'm missing something, we have to
use external entities.  Two methods come to mind here.  One is to specify
an absolute path for the entity.  I don't think this is viable since we
can't maintain the same absolute path on all systems.  So, I think we have
to use symbolic links which are created at install time.  For example, we
may have an entity 'docbugsblurb.sgml' in $PREFIX/help/entities and then
make a symbolic link from every $PREFIX/<docname>/<languagename>/ to
it.  I don't like this a lot, but I don't see any better solutions.  If my
memory is correct, this is also how KDE does it.

These entities should be installed by gnome-core or gnome-libs, as with
the GFDL and GPL docs.  (I forget which package we decided on.)

Thoughts?

Dan


On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Michael McElree - Sun Ireland - Tech Writer wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> One suggestion I would like to see 
> implemented involves a (minor) change to the Authors section 
> of 
> online help. 
> 
> It is very important for Sun (and for other companies 
> distributing GNOME in the future) that users are given a link 
> to a 
> page listing the appropriate support channel. Thus, GNOME on 
> Solaris users who need further support or information  on any 
> of 
> the core software would be given a link to a Sun-specific 
> contact 
> information page. In this way, each distribution of GNOME 
> would 
> direct users to the appropriate channel to obtain further 
> support. Each distributor of GNOME would only have to insert 
> the 
> relevant information on one page, rather than trying to change 
> the help for every piece of software. 
> 
> To take the example of the Mini-Commander applet - the Authors 
> section would read:
> 
> Mini-Commander was written by Oliver Maruhn 
> (<oliver maruhn com>). Please send all comments and 
> suggestions 
> via the following channels <link to relevant support details 
> page>.
> 
> This manual was written by Oliver Maruhn (<oliver maruhn com>) 
> Minor modifications and updates were made by Dan Mueth 
> (<d-mueth chicago edu>). Please send all comments and 
> suggestions 
> via the following channels <link to relevant support details 
> page>.
> 
> The default link would be to a page containing the text in the 
> current form. Sun (and other distributors) would replace this 
> page with one listing their own support contact details.
> 
> Regards
> Michael