Re: PROPOSAL: UISG Menu Line Standardization

[Bowie Poag <bjp primenet com>]

On 7 Aug 1998, Preben Randhol wrote:

> * Bowie Poag
> | > 
> | > What if their is no online help available? Would the Help menu still
> | > exist, with About as the only menu option? Seems a little odd to have an
> | > entire toplevel menu that only contains the one menu item, especially
> | > one that would make just as much sense to be placed under Program... 
> | 
> | Under the UISG, if no application-specific help is available, a simple
> | generic document for "Help with using GNOME" appears by default.
> 
> The UISG should state that every program should have a help page.

This kind of stuff (user-end documentation) is a little difficult to
mandate, simply because programmers dont really like writing
documentation.:) Its very hard to set it into stone that ALL developers
must include user dox with their apps upon releasing them, simply because
a programmer's free time should preferably be spent coding, not writing
dox.:)

I think most coders understand the need for documentation -- Its just very
low on their list of priorities, and sometimes even non-existant on their
list of "to do" 's..

Application documentation will likely be a requirement of Level 3 and
higher apps. Look for a proposal like this to pop up mid next week.

 
> I really think that one of the major pitfalls is that the
> programs/libraries are not documented properly. Thus too make this an
> requirement would increase the number of help documents and the
> usability of the GNOME system.
> 
> I think preferences should go in the Progam menu and not as a top
> menu.

This seems to be popular consensus. Have a look at Revision 1 of the UISG
Menu Line Standardization, which should be there by the time you read
this.


Bowie