Re: To answer your question about the upcoming Style-Guide...

["Berin Loritsch" <BERIN LORITSCH cpmx saic com>]

Overnight I have seen something on the order of 40 messages ranting and raving
about online tutorials.  We should have audio... We should have video...  We
shouldn't do anything besides html help...

The long and the short of it is that we shouldn't be worried about full blown
tutorials for the Gnome project--yet.  We are too early in development to worry
about these features.  We haven't even agreed on keybindings (except for
making them configurable) at this point.

As far as documentation goes, I have seen horrendous manuals: "This is a
button.  Can you say BUTT un?  Don't worry about what it does.  It is called
'Format Disk'.  Press it and see what happens."  Granted this is exaggerated
to make a point.  I have also seen excellent examples.  S.u.S.E. Linux (while
I couldn't get past the outdated libraries they include with their distribution)
does a wonderful two tiered approach to documentation.  They have the
beginner's press this and type that approach, followed by a more detailed
power user's approach.

As a requirement for Gnome compliance, an app should be required to include
(at the very least) a beginner's instruction set.  Anything above and beyond
that is gravy.  If one app has full motion video with surround sound, having
contracted the Turkish belly-dancing troupe to implement their help system,
that is up to them.  We just need a standard interface for how to access that
help.

Remember to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) in all things.  The way some of you
are talking, it reminds me of a young, married couple.  They want everything
their parents have, but can't pay for it all.  Consequently, they go into debt, hate
each other and get divorced.  The analogy is their because some among us want
elaborate help systems and configurable everything, but forget the cost in time,
frustration, blood, sweat, and tears required to make these things work.

We need a solid foundation first.  Let's get a firm bed, allowing for future growth,
and we will add amenities as we go on.

>From one of the best KISSers out their, let's get a sanity check.  Be wary of
new *features*, and try a sample test app to see if the thing really works
like you envisioned it.  Having a sample to play with and pass around goes
a long way toward stopping people from talkin' out the side of their neck.
Everyone, including the conceptualizer, has a good basis for accepting,
denying, or improvig the feature for inclusion.  A static picture doesn't really
give the proper idea either.  You need to see how it feels, first.  As an added
bonus, you have sample code that is ready for inclusion into Gnome.

That way we all have a sanity check.  Yes, having a central key-binding
repository would be a *Cool Idea* TM, but having an example can give
us an idea of what a system would cost in terms of ease of setting up,
changing the bindings, and performance.