Re: Question about contributing to GNOME documentation

[Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>]

Hi Russell,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

On Fri, 2010-08-06 at 07:12 +1000, Russell Dickenson wrote:
> I understand that with the change to Mallard documentation format,
> things are in a state of flux at the moment. I want to clarify the
> process by which documentation is being edited.
> 
> As I understand it, GNOME documentation is contained in one or more
> git respositories. Anyone wanting to contribute documentation, or edit
> documentation, ought to make a note of this in the wiki page so that
> everyone else involved knows what's in progress. The person wanting to
> write then clones the approporiate git repo, writes/edits, and submits
> patches. From what I have read, the emphasis at the moment is on
> having people contribute content, whether it's in Mallard format or
> plain text. Once documentation and/or edits are accepted, they're
> pushed to the appropriate git repo.
> 
> If I understand correctly, this all sounds reasonable, but although
> several people are working on documentation topics, I don't see this
> reflected in the wiki page. Do I misunderstand the process? My concern
> is that if I do take time to contribute documentation, there could
> easily be a conflict between my work on a topic and someone else's
> work on the same topic.

Yes, that's how it should work in theory. I'm supposed to be responsible
for updating the wiki pages, but unfortunately I've fallen behind :(

If you're worried about duplicating work, the easiest thing to do at the
moment is to check with me. Only a few people are working on things at
the moment, and I'll be able to tell you if a topic is currently
"taken". I'll try to update the wiki page as soon as I can though.

In the mean time, there are a few areas which could really use some
attention, but which no-one is working on at the moment. These are the
Evolution help [1] (which has only a single topic at the moment!) and
the Evince help [2] (which needs several topics adding before it is
completely complete). Of course, there's always work to be done on the
desktop help too.

Please let me know if you're interested in any of these and I'll be
happy to help you get started (if you like).

Thanks,

Phil

[1] -
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2010-August/msg00005.html
[2] -
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2010-August/msg00031.html

-- 
Phil Bull
https://launchpad.net/~philbull
Book - http://nostarch.com/ubuntu4.htm