Re: What's the plan for the user guide?

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net> wrote:

> O/H karderio έγÏ?αÏ?ε:
> > On Sat, 2006-02-04 at 14:06 +0000, Joachim Noreiko
> wrote:
> >   
> >> --- Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net> wrote:
> >>     
> >>> Care to back this up? (URL?)
> >>>       
> >>
> http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject_2fTasks
> >>
>
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2005-October/msg00014.html
> >>
> >> Though surely this title business is a
> >> misinterpretation of the license? Otherwise it's
> plain
> >> nuts.
> >>     
> >
> > I would guess that it was a misinterpretation, as
> >
>
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2005-October/msg00014.html
> > talks of "derivative documents". However the GFDL
> talks about changing
> > the title for "modified versions"... Therefore it
> would seem that the
> > title must be changed...
> >
> > I would think that adding a version number at the
> end of the title would
> > not legally be considered changing the title, but
> rather keeping the
> > same title with an appended number. I think we may
> as well shed the
> > version number, as I don't think adding this
> exposes us any less to
> > legal threats.
> >
> > That said, the current user-guide does not seem to
> respect a few other
> > things that the GDFL imposes :
> > * List authors on title page
> >   
> Hello,
> In GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt),
> Section 4, item B, 
> referring to the listing of the authors on the title
> page, it says
> "..., unless [the authors] release you from this
> requirement."
> Are the authors happy without their names on the
> title page?
> The default stylesheets for DocBook XML (html and
> print) do place the 
> author names with their affiliation on the title
> page.
> > * "State on the Title page the name of the
> publisher"
> >   
> This is a requirement for modified versions. Are we
> on this state for 
> the user guide?
> The default DocBook XML stylesheets do not appear to
> place the publisher 
> on the title page. They place it on the face of the
> second physical page.
> > * Add a copyright notice for modifications
> > * The legal notice (GDFL license text or
> reference) does not seem to be
> > user visible (GNOME 2.12)
> >   
> The TLDP has an author's guide which has template
> documents. It's easy 
> to fix these ones, like pasting the
> <legalnotice></legalnotice> text.
>
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/index.html
> > I would agree that the GFDL is just not meant for
> the task we are using
> > it for. 
> >   
> In this case I would be interested to see an
> alternative. Perhaps 
> debian-legal could make up a Debian Documentation
> License for this.
> I think this mail,
>
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2006/02/msg00001.html
> puts the situation in perspective.
> The thread there is quite active.

...and so we're back in the quagmire.
We're going to be stuck debating the number of angels
on pins like Golgafrinchams for weeks now.

It was just a passing comment I made about the GFDL.
Whether or not Shaun plans to move away from GFDL, it
won't happen for a while. It's not the most important
thing and it's not the issue I wanted to raise.

The 2.14 release is coming up. I'd like GNOME users to
have documentation that 1) reflects their current
system, and 2) doesn't suck. 
I think both are feasible, but we have to get moving.

In response to Karderio's comment about our work being
wasted -- if we do have to rewrite from scratch on
day, we can just take a diff from the last SUN
revision and take that as a starting point, filling in
the gaps. Frankly, if we lose material like the "To
Show and Hide File Browser Window Component" section
in the Nautilus docs I won't be sorry. It's clearly
been written by robots.

Sorry if I'm ranting, but I've been around on this
list for a few months now and the movement is
geological. There's a widely spread opinion that FOSS
development is fast and stuff gets fixed quickly. Load
of tosh. 


		
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