Re: Role and function of the docs team

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com> wrote:

> > As one of the maintainers of gnome-games, I
> promise
> > that we will involve 
> > the GDP as much as possible.
> 
> That's great to hear.
> I wasn't in any way picking on gnome-games, it was
> just an example :)

Actually, let's pick on gnome-games :)

You've replaced my comment on the wiki page with this:
'The new game will be committed to gnome-games CVS
when the feature freeze of GNOME 2.18 has started. At
this time, translations and documentation of the new
game can begin'

The 'you'll know on the day of feature freeze'
approach is exactly the problem -- the GDP ends up
with an impossible mountain of work to do in a very
short time.

Here is what I suggest should happen instead:

1. You currently have a list of suggested new games. I
image you'll be making a shortlist for the survey
fairly soon and the developers of these will be
contacted.
2. The developers of these games write to the docs
list, saying something like this:
"Hi. My game is being considered for GNOME. Please
could you take a look at the docs I have / help me
write a manual from scratch."
3. I strongly doubt that any of the games under
consideration would *completely* rewrite their UI
between now and freeze. 
Most devs would have at least a vague idea of a
roadmap, and could say to us "features a b and c will
change, but the rest is stable".
EVEN with an app due for a complete UI change, we'd be
able to help them get a user manual template into
their CVS, and add to it an introduction and overview
of the rules.
With existing manuals, we can convert what's already
there to docbook, and help them get into shape for GDP
style. Looking at the manual for Hearts for example,
http://www.jejik.com/hearts/users/, it falls into the
trap of doing a listing all the menus instead of
focussing on tasks the user wants to accomplish.

This might work out as a little bit more overall work
for the GDP, but it would be work that can take place
during the quiet part of the cycle.
It would also give you an indication of which
developers of the proposed games are serious about
getting their projects up to gnome standards :)


		
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