Re: Nautilus documentation update

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Wed, 2005-12-28 at 12:20 -0700, Brent Smith wrote:
> I think string freeze starts January 2nd, with the release of
> 2.13.4 - If we want modifications to be translated, we will
> have to commit the patches before that deadline, right?

While an admirable goal, the GDP has yet to follow
string freeze for documentation.  Part of that is
that we just don't have the manpower to get that
much documentation work done so quickly.

But then, the freezes are in place partly so that
the documentation and translation teams can do
their work without everything changing underneath
them.  Realistically, there's no way we can have
anything resembling a final draft before feature
freeze, because the program might change.

And documentation can be affected by UI and string
changes as well, even if they don't constitute new
features.  So you can't actually freeze documentation
until after the string freeze.  It just doesn't work.

I don't think we can ever expect to be able to freeze
all documentation at string freeze, although we should
certainly attempt to finish it as early as possible.

A really good documentation process would involve
multiple reviews for accuracy, language, and markup.
And a really, really good documentation process would
have the same sorts of reviews on the translations of
the documentation.  Our schedule just doesn't allow
for all of that, so we do what we can.

--
Shaun