Re: General GNOME User docs

["David C. Mason" <dcm redhat com>]

Dan Mueth <d-mueth@uchicago.edu> writes:

> > I have no objections to users guide, but I personally would hate to
> > update it for 1.4 - merging in all the new material about nautilus
> > etc. If dave will do it - great.
> 
> As for merging the Nautilus docs... We probably would want to put a
> stripped down introduction to Nautilus in there. (Not that it is any
> easier.)
> 
> Dave - What do you think?  Are you interested in working on a UG for 1.4?

OK - first let me say that I have been following this... just forming
my response in a sleepy head.

The reason I declared that the GUG for 1.2 would be the last one was
two-fold. First there was the talk about doing a GNOME book for
O'Reilly. Second, it was becoming very large due to all of you joining
the GDP and doing such an excellent job.

So how do I feel now?

Well I have the same attitude towards it. I just don't see continuing
the GUG is in our best interest. First of all, the docs that are going
into the application directories are being written for online
help. This is very good - a positive step in my opinion. Online help
should be written in a very different form from printed material, and
even web based material. We have not separated the two up till now due
to lack of resources. 

I think for 1.4 we should beef up the online help, clean it up where
needed, and make sure they *all* get translated.

Second, the inclusion of Nautilus and Evolution would make the GUG an
unwieldy beast - and one I sure don't want to deal with, nor would I
want to download in any printable format. If someone decided they
wanted to put it together for 1.4 would I be upset? No way, but I
don't think it is where our energies should be focussed.

We have committed to doing this book for O'Reilly, and we even have a
rough deadline for delivery around the same time as 2.0 ships (which
is not far off). I think we need to refocus on this and make sure it
happens. This can be a big deal... to not only prove GNOME's
worthiness, but to also showcase the open source documentation
movement. If we pull this off together, we can use it as the shining
example of the open collaborative writing process. GDP will rock!

We can also use any portion of the book for use within the GNOME
desktop itself thanks to the license.

So for 1.4 I suggest we focus on making sure what is in the
application document directories (and in the help browser) is the best
it can be. Not only that but we should finish this in a very timely
fashion so this release can have translated inline help - lets finish
it and push it to the i18n list heavily. This would be *very*
beneficial for the project as a whole - it is high time all our docs
were translated.

</daves opinion>

Cheers,

Dave
-- 


David Mason
Red Hat Advanced Development Labs
dcm@redhat.com (919)547-0012 x248