How To Build A Style-Guide 101.

[Bowie Poag <bjp primenet com>]

> 
> It must be a *final* draft if you have no input from the GNOME UI list on 
> the style guide this is IMHO a law of bazar style writing. The style guide
> will be a moving target even after you release it if you continue as it
> stands. Most of us do not intend to argue over minor points. Heck, I am
> only here to make sure that you guys take internationalisation into
> account, but I have followed the debate and I am getting unpleasant
> feelings about this. Well, before I start flaming anyone I would like to
> here Bowie's definition of "FINAL DRAFT" and "FULLY-FORMED", as I suspect
> that much of the disagreement stems from the use of these terms.
> 
> Martin

Gladly. And thank you for asking me to clarify.

By "fully formed", I mean "a style guide which contains all the necessary
components that the GNOME Style Guide should address." ...A pre-pre-Rough
Draft. That is, a document which contains all the necessary ingredients,
but must first be twiddled with by all of us, into a picture we can all be
satisfied with in the end. A "fully formed" style guide is like a recipe
on a 3X5 card. We now have the ingredients mixed into the bowl.

--

By "final draft", I'm referring to the cake after we pull it out of the
oven, after X number of trials. Once a fully formed style guide can be
delivered into the hands of the public, it is subject to the public's
criticisms. Improvements, suggestions, and clarifications will be made to 
it. The authors will then go back into their cave, taking the
suggestions with them, do a little more chiselling, and re-emerge shortly
thereafter with a "rough draft".. One step closer to the final product.

This process of re-release, re-examination, and re-writing continues until
we have a document that is as close to being 100% pure as we can 
reasonably achieve. Once that point is reached, we have a >> FINAL
DRAFT << ..It is then, when we all have a chance to vote on it; And if we
like it, whammo -- We now have the Official GNOME User Interface Style
Guide, Version 2.0.

Hope this helps,

Bowie