Re: Contribution of Sun documentation team to the GDP.

[Patrick Costello <Patrick Costello Sun COM>]

Shaun McCance wrote:
> 
> Hi Pat,
> 
> I certainly don't want anybody to feel they're under any obligation to
> do documentation work.  This is an open project, and people's roles will
> naturally change over time.  Of course, it's generally polite for one to
> be upfront about what one can do, which is exactly what you're doing.
> 

Thanks for your understanding Shaun. We didn't want to let anybody down. 

> [snip]

[We will still be there to do reviews]

> That would be great.  We do seem to get a lot of new people interested
> in writing docs for us.  But, like programming, good tehcnical writing
> isn't some trivial task anybody can pick up and do well overnight.
> 
> What I'd really like to do is have a concentrated review process before
> we do stable releases.  I think your experience could be helpful here,
> if you're interested.
> 

To be honest, I really think that the most manageable process is to review
all jobs individually as they progress. We would not be able to commit to
block booking of reviewing just before 2.8 release time, but we will
probably be able to review updates of jobs we have been working up to now,
if we approach the jobs one-by-one. 


> [snip]

[Development cycle]

> Six months *is* gruelling, I agree.  If all goes well, we're looking at
> about a one month time frame before I can do an automagic DocTable that
> works well.  This all goes together with build tools I've been working
> on.  This will require us to put a bit more structured metadata in the
> documents, but that's generally a good idea anyway.
> 
> [snip]
> 

[GNOME 2.8 Desktop User Guide needs an experienced author to take over]

> Yes, agreed.  For a lot of the smaller tasks, I think we can get some of
> the eager new people to jump on.  But we should probably find a seasoned
> writer in the community to take on the User Guide.  And we should do it
> soon.  The User Guide is a big task.
> 
> There are, by the way, a few problems with the 2.6.0 User Guide that
> should be addressed for 2.6.1.  It appears some JDS stuff slipped into
> the community docs.  Can Brian or another of the Sun team address this
> for 2.6.1, or should we try to find somebody else for that?
> 

Oh dear. Not too surprising that JDS topics have slipped through
considering we have pushed to the limit the capabilities of marked
sections. This was exactly the sort of thing that I have been worrying
about. Also, we were having real difficulties getting hold of latest
community builds as opposed to latest builds flavored with JDS. I think
what has happened here is that Brian genuinely thought he was documenting
the latest GNOME community build, but was inadvertently capturing JDS
functionality as well. Therefore, I think the best thing that we can do to
be sure is to find someone willing to take on working on the GNOME 2.8
Desktop User Guide right away, and Brian can act as peer reviewer and
general advisor. This should enable Brian and the new author of the UG to
triangulate the information and thereby eliminate any JDS flavorings. Brian
- would you have time to support a new contributor to the community UG, as
a peer reviewer? 

Pat