GDP maintainer

[Eric Baudais <baudais okstate edu>]

John and I have been talking about the need to integrate and maintain the 
GDP's various tidbits of code scattered around.  There is the yelp help 
browser, docbook converter, manpage converter, infopage converter, 
Scrollkeeper, and other things we would like to see implemented in the future 
(i.e. context sensitive help, graphical tutorials).  Currently this 
responsibility rests on John who "can barely hack his way out of a paper bag." 

What we need is a person who can maintain our code if the current author 
decides to abandon the code and do something else.  Below is an email I have 
made to ask the GNOME community for a hacker who can integrate the 
contributions of hackers willing to write code with the rest of the GNOME 
desktop and to maintain our current code if the authors decide to stop 
maintaining it.  I believe this is necessary and prudent.

Email:

The GDP's adventure in to GNOME 2 has been a bumpy ride.  Jonathan Blandford's 
proposal for the help API wasn't implemented until long into the Betas.  The 
on the fly docbook converter had a guy who left.  I tried to write them and 
failed.  Finally Sander stepped up and it looks like it will finally get done. 
There are multiple bugs for the manpage and infopage converters.  Yet it 
hasn't been all bad.  Scrollkeeper is moving along at its slow pace and Yelp 
become a reality in only 4 months due to Mikael's hard work.

Why has this been a pothole plagued road for the GDP?  We lost some good 
hacker contributions to Scrollkeeper and the help converters.  There wasn't a 
hacker around to notice that the help API wasn't implemented.  People from the 
GDP have stepped up to take a swing at doing this work.  I tried to write the 
on the fly docbook converter.  John Fleck is currently maintaining the help 
converters.  Dan Mueth is maintaining Scrollkeeper.  This obviously hasn't 
turned out to be the best situation.

We are asking the GNOME community for someone to help us maintain our code 
and to help integrate the scattered code into the GNOME desktop.  The 
contributions of Mikael, Jonathan, Daniel Veillard, and Sander help us in 
narrow specific areas.  These contributions are greatly beneficial, but we 
need someone to maintain the whole system so it can run smoothly and integrate 
their contributions.  This person should have a moderate knowledge of the 
GNOME desktop and a willingness to work with hackers and non-hackers alike.  
This person should also be excited about the direction the GDP is headed 
toward a complete XML based help system.

Looking at the GNOME Advisory Board's meeting notes "ease of use" and 
"usability" seem to be at the top of GNOME's objectives.  We hope by having a 
hacker who can integrate sparodic contributions and maintain the code these 
goals can met and the documenters can work on documentation instead of 
maintaining code.

Eric Baudais