Docs, docs, who's got the docs?

[Chris Jantzen <chris maybe net>]

Samuel Solon writes:
 > After reading this list for the last couple of weeks I thought I was
 > following what was going on -- but now I'm not so sure.

You're certainly not the first person to make that observation. :-)

 > AFAIK this is all free software. The author of a piece of piece of software
 > is free to do *whatever they want*. They can conform to the GNOME style
 > guide or not. Nobody can force anybody to do anything.

[snip]

 > If an author wants to release an application without docs, they can, they
 > just won't meet that level of compliance.

I think we can all agree on this, right guys?

 > Personally, I feel that EVERY GNOME application should come with at least a
 > rudimentary set of documentation. The lowest level of compliance should
 > require some sort of descriptive document.
 > 
 > People either agree that it is necessary that GNOME applications be
 > documented, and it's made part of the requirements, or they feel that
 > documentation is unnecessary and it is left out of the
 > requirements.

I strongly agree on all points here. The other thing that is likely
being overlooked, is that as Bowie said, nobody is forcing the *coder*
specifically to write *all* the user documentation. If a coder is
smart, he will certainly write some form of documentation to hand off
to the documentation team. I think the focus of discussion should be
"how strongly is documentation mandated".

 > It seems odd to fight tooth and nail about icon versus text, "File" menu
 > versus something else, and then just say, "documentation would be nice but
 > most of our users will be experts/mind readers/adventurous people who don't
 > mind guessing/experimenting/wasting bandwidth on usenet to figure out how
 > the applications work".
 > 
 > GNOME should be about creating a positive user experience -- or why bother.

Thank you for taking the time to write a clear-headed interpretation
of the real issues here. I believe that the gut-reaction posting
regulars need people to come in with an outside viewpoint and set us
straight. I worry for what will happen when there are no more
outsiders.:-)

-- 
chris jantzen kb7rnl =-> 
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