Re: Dates Article

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

Hi, 

sorry if I'm late to the party but I have a few more notes: I've just
read the article from start to end, and, well, made notes while reading:

 1.) It would rock if we could get an abstract; one that appears in
bold letters on the front page.

 2.) The first paragraph is cool because it makes people curious but
the second is already too detailed for an introduction, IMHO. Better
restart be moving paragraph 3 up and add some background information.

 3.) Remember that our readers are no GNOME enthusiasts, in general. If
you mentioning stuff like 'Maemo' or 'OpenedHand', you gotta tell the
readers what this is. Don't require them to use Google to understand
your article.

 Example of a reader's implicit questions:

    * Chris Lord started it. OK but why?
    * Who's Chris Lord, btw?
    * Why was it ported?
    * What is memeo and why is this relevant here?
    * And why should I care about Embedded Linux projects?
    * Isn't this Dates thingy for my usual desktop?

 4.) Paragraph 2 is too short when talking about the applications
benefits, IHMO. Is zooming into a calender all one can do with this?

 5.) Ok, the relevant information comes in paragraph 4. Maybe we should
move this up as well.

 6.) Again, some more background info here: The Nokia 770 is
obviously a handheld devise but why is it so special?

 7.) As a general recommendation for article writing: People have
problem understanding negative expressions. If there's any way to
express an idea in positive terms, do so. Here, this is the sentence:
"Although Dates is _not_ an Evolution replacement, that does _not_ mean
that it might _not_ be more suited for ..."

 Tell what is, not what's not!

 8.) Hm, the sentences about the availability of Dates for the Nokia
doesn't make much sense: What's mistral? What's a components field? 

In general, the story is a little bit short. Was there nothing exciting
about Dates? Wasn't it a challenge to get it this small, maybe? Or was
the interface design not a particular complicated operation?

It might be useful to reuse some background information that appeared
on planet.gnome.org or so -- hopefully, the GNOME journal is read by
people outside core GNOME so that shouldn't matter.

Overall, however, it's looks like a cool tiny application, and a good
article. Especially people like me who don't run Evolution but could
use a calender will be interested. Very cool! :-)


Cheers,
Claus


On Sat, 5 Aug 2006 01:18:32 -0300
"Lucas Rocha" <lucasr at mundo gmail com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> No further comments on this article?
> 
> --lucasr
>