Re: Question about contributing to GNOME documentation

[Russell Dickenson <russelldickenson gmail com>]

On 13 August 2010 07:00, Phil Bull <philbull gmail com> wrote:
> Hi Russell,
>
> Sorry for the delay in replying.

No problem.

> 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

I'll put up my hand to complete the Evince documentation -
annotations. Unfortunately the SyncTex looks to be beyond my technical
knowledge. I would also like to help with the Evolution documentation
but (a) I don't currently use Evolution (gasp!) and it's likely to be
a much bigger job than "completing" the Evince documentation and I
shouldn't make a commitment I know I can't keep (at least at the
moment).

I'll keep this ML up to date as my work progresses.


- Russell Dickenson