Re: building GNOME vs writing docs

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 21:29 +0000, Simos Xenitellis wrote:
> O/H Shaun McCance έγραψε:
> > On Sun, 2006-02-05 at 12:07 +0000, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> >   
> >> Our situation is that we need writers. We need to
> >> lower the barriers to entry, and one of them is
> >> expecting new doc writers to build themselves a
> >> complete GNOME from CVS before they can write
> >> documentation.
> >>
> >> My experiences would suggest that expecting doc
> >> writers to build GNOME themselves isn't feasible.
> >>     
> >
> > [snipped insightful material for expediency]
> >
> >   
> >> Here are my ideas for discussion, please add your own:
> >>
> >> * provide binaries of apps that doc writers can
> >> download and run
> >> * ask people who can compile to write brief summaries
> >> of what's new, that doc writers can then clean up
> >> * make scripts that can build you a single app from
> >> CVS with one command
> >>     
[snip]
> > One possible solution is to provide Live CDs at every
> > unstable point release.  Doing so would undoubtedly
> > help the bug hunting efforts as well.  But it's a huge
> > undertaking.
> >   
> Another option is to create a virtual machine suitable for VMWare 
> Player. It should be easy for the developer and also for the 
> documentation writer.
> What you do here is you create such a virtual machine and let your 
> technical writers run them with their VMWare Player.
> 
> Some links.
> 1. Free VMWare Player, available for Linux, Windows
> http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
> 2. Community developed virtual machines list
> http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/community.html
> 
> The main advantages of a virtual machine over a Live CD are:
> 1. The developer can easily create it and customise by removing unneeded 
> parts to make it small
> 2. No need to burn a CD
> 3. Faster to boot than CD as it resides on the hard disk
> 4. You can set the resolution by default to 800x600, which is friendly 
> to screenshots.
> 5. You can even take screenshot of GDM.
> 6. Screenshots are saved either on the host OS or from within the 
> virtual machine.
> 
> I am not affiliated with VMWare.

Hot damn, I never even thought of that.  That's quite
possibly the coolest idea ever.  Whom do we need to
pester to make this happen?

--
Shaun