Re: About GNOME / return / duck related question

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Thu, 2006-12-07 at 17:37 +0100, karderio wrote:
> Hi :o)
> 
> On Fri, 2006-12-01 at 10:19 -0600, Shaun McCance wrote:
> > More importantly, help documents in Mallard are pluggable.
> > That means that, even if a module's help files are put in
> > the User Guide, they don't have to be maintained inside
> > gnome-user-docs.  Instead, they can be maintained inside
> > their respective modules, and they'll get installed into
> > the installed User Guide.
> 
> I think that just about answers my original question. If we have a
> complete GNOME installation, minus Nautilus (for example), will the user
> guide automagically remove the Nautilus sections ?

With Mallard, it won't so much remove it as never see it in the
first place.  If Nautilus isn't installed, then the sections of
the User Guide that deal with Nautilus won't be installed.

Now, this is a dangerous road, and one we shouldn't travel too
far on for what we consider to be core components.  Because when
you get right down to it, stuff like the panel and Nautilus are
so fundamental to the user experience that you just can't avoid
referencing them all over the place.

The pluggability is more designed for stuff like plug-ins, or
for optional features that may not have been compiled in.

> > I hope that makes sense.  It works in my head.
> 
> These concepts are cool but complex ;)

I've been kicking these ideas around in my head for maybe
two or three years now.  The ideas have gone through many
revisions, mostly in an effort to make them more simple.

DocBook has taught me that complexity kills writer mojo.

--
Shaun