Re: help content redux

[john sheehan <john sheehan Sun COM>]

Hi Sasha,

There is no way that the User Guide will be localised by community 2.0 FCS.
We'll do well to even have it up to date in English.  For example, I heard
today that the Tasklist and Deskguide applets are not being ported but are
being rewritten from scratch with no certainty as to their completion.
It sounds as if, come the UI freeze date, they may freeze for 2.0 in
whatever state they happen to be in - which is hardly a good foundation
for documentation let alone localisation.

Regards

John

 
Alexander Kirillov wrote:
> 
> I'll do some of the work on gnome-user-docs  and gnome-core, but I'd
> rather not take responsibility as maintainer.
> 
> By the way, talking about gnome-user-docs:
> 
> 1. My feeling is, we should definitely use Sun's user guide instead of our
> current one. But I also would like to keep "Intro to GNOME" etc.
> 
> 2. If the UG will indeed be translated to 9 languages, we probably do not
> want to inlcude the translations in the same package "gnome-user-docs" -
> otherwise, it will be *HUGE*. Instead, we should have 9 different packages
> "gnome-user-docs-en", etc. - of course, all of them built from the same
> CVS
> module. Who is responsible for release coordination/packaging of GNOME 2.0
> - should we discuss it with him/her/them?
> 
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 22:03:53 -0700
> "John Fleck" <jfleck inkstain net> wrote:
> 
> > Folks -
> >
> > Pat's note to the list this morning made me realize we need a
> > more concrete plan for updating our user documentation for GNOME 2
> > than the vague "let's convert docs as soon as the apps are ready" way
> > we've been doing this.
> >
> > The targets keep moving, which is why I have avoided trying to push
> > people into spending too much time converting documentation for
> > GNOME2. But deadlines are sufficiently near that we need to be sure
> > things do not slip through the cracks.
> >
> > There are three lists we need to be looking at:
> >
> > I. The schedule:
> >
> >    http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/schedule/
> >
> >    The key deadlines here are:
> >
> >    Dec. 21 - UI freeze
> >    Jan. 23 - GNOME 2.0 Release Candidate 1 packages due
> >    Feb. 15 - GNOME 2.0 Final release
> >
> > II. The packages
> >
> >    http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/modules/
> >
> >    The "Desktop" section is what we're interested in. That's what will
> >    be ported to the GNOME 2 libraries for inclusion in the GNOME 2
> >    release. The web page gives an idea of the porting status of
> >    various apps.
> >
> > III. Stuff Sun is Documenting
> >
> >    John Sheehan prepared a list of the applications Sun is
> >    documenting, which I've appended below.[1] Sun's plan is to make
> > their
> >    documentation available for the GNOME community release.
> >
> >    My feeling is that we should use Sun documentation where we are
> >    able - it's high quality and it will be well translated. But we're
> >    not going to ram it down anyone's throat - if you've been the
> >    author of a doc and prefer to use your own in GNOME 2, we're not
> >    going to force you to replace your work with Sun's. John makes that
> >    point pretty clearly in his message below.
> >
> > Up until now, we've been pretty laissez faire about the GNOME 2 doc
> > preparations. Individual documenters signed up to do documentation
> > for the various apps in the past should still retain that
> > responsibility as far as I'm concerned. But to make sure things don't
> > slip through the cracks, I'd like to propose that we get a core group
> > of GDP folks to crack heads and make sure stuff gets done.
> >
> > In October I sent out a list of stuff to be done that included the
> > following suggestion, which I'll repeat:
> >
> >   "We need someone to ride herd over the docs for each of
> >   the main packages in GNOME 2.0, to make sure documentation work is
> >   coordinated with the developers and translators, that the review and
> >   QA processes are completed, and that the work gets done on time.
> >
> >   gnome-core - Volunteer needed
> >   gnome-applets - Volunteer needed
> >   gnome-games - Volunteer needed
> >   gnome-utils - John Fleck
> >   Nautilus - Dan Mueth
> >   gnome-user-docs - Dan Mueth"
> >
> > It met with a deafening silence, but I'll repeat it here. Can we get a
> > few people willing to take responsibiility for these packages to be
> > sure the work gets done? That means coordinating with the developers,
> > with the Sun people in cases where Sun documentation is involved, and
> > with the original authors.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > John Fleck
> >
> >
> > [1] From John Sheehan at Sun:
> > ************************************************************
> > We'd be very keen to contribute apps documentation.  Our hope
> > is to complete all those app docs that will be in the community
> > core and that will also be in the Sun product.
> >
> > I enclose 3 lists:
> >
> >   1.  Those apps which we have documented or expect to document.
> >
> >   2.  Those apps which are in the proposed community 2.0 core
> >       and which we do not intend to document.
> >
> >   3.  Those apps which are in the existing 1.4 core but are
> >       not in the proposed 2.0 core and which we defintely will
> >       not document.  I include this list in case the proposed
> >       2.0 core expands to include some of the dropped apps
> >
> > Our ability to deliver the apps in the first list in time for
> > inclusion in the GNOME community release depends on:
> >
> >   - whether the community core definition changes.
> >
> >   - whether the defined community core all gets ported.
> >
> >   - the number of functional changes in core apps which
> >     would require changes to documentation done so far.
> >
> >   - how much time we have to complete documentation between
> >     first full beta and FCS.
> >
> >   - converting to XML and new title pages, and getting agreement
> >     from original maintainers to replace their document.
> >
> >   - whether our user guide can replace the existing online
> >     GNOME User Guide.  If so, we would like to change the target
> >     of many of the Help buttons so that they point to within
> >     the user guide.  This would be for Help for the Panel,
> >     Menu Editor, Control Centre, Launchers, Run button, etc.
> >
> > Having listed some of the issues we face, let me emphasise that
> > we are determined to try and get all the apps in the first list
> > completed in time for the community FCS.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > John
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > List 1.
> >
> > 1a. Core apps we expect to complete for community FCS
> >
> >
> >    Programs    Nautilus       - from the user guide
> >                gedit          - written
> >                Startup Hint   - not started
> >                Gdict          - not started
> >                Calculator     - written
> >                Character Map  - written
> >                Color Browser  - written
> >                Font Selector  - written
> >                Ghostview      - written
> >                Sound Recorder - not started
> >                CD player      - in progress
> >                Control Centre - from the user guide
> >                Menu Editor    - from the user guide
> >                GNOME terminal - written
> >                Shutdown/reboot- in progress
> >                System Info    - in progress
> >                Sys Log monitor- in progress
> >                Gperfmeter     - not started (new Sun utility)
> >                Gprocview      - not started (new Sun utility)
> >
> >    Applets     Fish           - not started
> >                geyes          - written
> >                Clock          - written
> >                CD player      - in progress
> >                Mixer          - in progress
> >                Sound Monitor  - not started
> >                Clock & Mail   - not started
> >                Stock Ticker   - not started
> >                Deskguide      - in progress
> >                Printer        - not started
> >                Tasklist       - written
> >                Character Pick - written
> >                GNOME weather  - in progress
> >                Mini-commander - written
> >                ScreenShooter  - written
> >                Whereami       - written
> >                gdict          - not started
> >
> >    Panel       Help Buttons   - from the user guide
> >
> >
> > 1b.  Non-core apps
> >
> >      Documentation was started for some apps/applets which were
> >      in the 1.4 core but which have been dropped from the 2.0
> >      core.  Sun may or may not include these in its 2.0 release.
> >
> >                Ghex           - written
> >                Time Tracker   - written
> >                Eye of GNOME   - written
> >                Gnotes applet  - written
> >                Quicklaunch    - written
> >                Webcontrol     - in progress
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > List 2.  2.0 core apps we will not document
> >
> > Programs       Bug Report tool
> >                GNOME Searchtool
> >                Stripchart plotter
> >                gfloppy
> >                All games
> >                xmms           - too much work at present
> >
> >
> > Applets        Fifteen
> >                Game of Life
> >                Odometer
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > List 3.  1.4 core apps which we will not document even if they are
> >          included in the 2.0 core
> >
> > Programs       GNOME diskfree
> >                User listing
> >                Text File Viewer
> >                All monitor applets
> >                Another clock
> >                JBC Binary clock
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > --
> > John Fleck
> > jfleck inkstain net (h), http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/
> > "A M00se once bit my sister..."
> > _______________________________________________
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> > gnome-doc-list gnome org
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