GNOME 2 schedule and issues

[John Fleck <jfleck inkstain net>]

Folks -

As your release team liason and designated worrywart[1], I thought a
report on the GNOME 2 schedule might be useful for those not following
the discussions on the other lists.

The Schedule:
*************

We have an ambitious schedule that will place great demands on us to
get documentation out quickly:

   http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/schedule/

In brief, the key milestones are:

   January 11  UI FREEZE
   January 16  RELEASE - Gnome 2.0 Desktop Beta 1
   February 20  RELEASE - Gnome 2.0 Desktop Release Candidate 1
   March 15  RELEASE - Gnome 2.0 Desktop Final

The Packages:
*************

The packages to be included in the release can be found on the modules
page - everything down through desktop-utils is included:

   http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/modules/ 

The following people have volunteered to coordinate documentation
for the various packages:

gnome-core: jfleck, sasha
gnome-applets: tcurtis
nautilus: muet
gnome-utils: jfleck
gnome-user-docs: needs a volunteer
gnome-games: needs a volunteer
various bits of API documentation: jfleck, aka TheDoomed

Conclusion:
***********

I realize this will be tough, because GNOME 2 is not yet usable
enough for us to begin documenting many of the major pieces. But many
of the minor pieces, especially the utilities, applets and games, have
been ported and we can start work on them. Given our experience with
the blizzard of documentation written in the month prior to the GNOME
1.2 release, I think it is doable, especially with the very capable
Sun team added to our number.

In the near term, we need people willing to build GNOME 2 and begin
banging on the infrastructure. Mikael Hallendal's Yelp help browser is
coming along, but we need people testing it. Greg Leblanc and Dan
Mueth have set up a template for the necessary Makefile.am's, but we
need people to begin adding this to the packages to see how it works
in practice and work out any build bugs now, before the documentation
blitz begins in earnest next month.

We need people actually making XML documents so we have something to
test.

GNOME 2 is buildable now (if I can, anyone can), and is usable in a
crude but charming way. (Most importantly, Wanda has been ported and
can keep you company on an otherwise rather desolate panel.)
I sheepishly admit to not being brave enough to use it as my
day-to-day desktop, but I am regularly using it for my GNOME 2 work
and it is functional enough to do most anything right now.

Questions:
**********

Among those out there slaving away furiously on the necessary tasks
that need finishing - stylesheets, gnome2-db2html, Yelp, title page,
licensing issues - where do you stand and what help do you need?

Who has converted docs to XML, and how has that gone?

Who has built GNOME 2 and played with the new help infrastructure, and
how has that gone?

What other things have I not mentioned that need attention for a
well-documented GNOME 2 to arrive on our users' desktops in March?

Cheers,

John

[1] Yes, I looked it up, it is a conjoined word. Perhaps we could add
it to the Style Guide? :-)
-- 
John Fleck
jfleck inkstain net (h), http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/
"A M00se once bit my sister..."