FAQ roadmap

[Todd Graham Lewis <tlewis mindspring net>]

Now that v1 of the FAQ is out without any major embarassments, I thought
that I would share with the group my plans for the future evolution of
the FAQ and solicit feedback on these plans.

v1.0.n  2-4 weeks from now
  These will be bugfix releases of v1.0.  I already have many (10?) bug
 reports on v1.0 (almost all minor) in my queue which I will fix and
 then release 1.0.1.  This process will continue for as long as I receive
 bug reports.

v1.1   4-6 weeks from now
  This will be an incremental release above v1.0, still in linuxdoc/
 sgmltools.  This release will include a new section on XML, as well
 as (perhaps) some notes on some of the cooler GNOME apps, including
 gnumeric.  This will go through the normal release cycle, but since
 there will be a few additions and no changes to the existing parts,
 debugging this one should be fast.

v1.5   November
  This version will involve no changes to the actual FAQ contents.  Rather,
 this will mark the conversion of the FAQ to DocBook, which promises
 not to be trivial.  I _still_ can't get jade to work on my machine,
 although I have not tried very hard yet.  I will be using the PostgreSQL
 documentation as my model, since it's the best example which I have
 found to date of DocBook-based docs.  Also in this version I will be
 breaking the FAQ up into multiple files rather than the monolithic
 LyX/sgml format which it's now in.  I'll also be abandoning LyX, at least
 until it supports DocBook.

v2.0   1999
  With v2.0, I want to start recruiting people to whom to delegate the
 various subsections of the FAQ.  I have toyed with the idea of converting
 the FAQ into a full-fledged "GNOME Handbook", with different sections
 for users, program developers, and GNOME developers.  This would require
 a lot of people to help.  Ideally, I would like to see a baboon person,
 (although I would probably like to cover the baboon beat), an XML person,
 an internationalization person, a GTK person, etc.  These people should
 not be the primary developer on their respective technologies, but they
 should be the primary developer's shadow, constantly updating the docs
 as the technology grows.
  I am still unclear on how this approach would work, but I do know that
 I would like to have a centralized source for docs which people can go
 to and, at a glance, find a solution to their development needs.  "How
 do I i18nalize my GNOME app?  Well, let me look up i18n in the index of
 the GNOME handbook!"  That sort of thing.

I already have two translations in the works and I hope to convince one
of the readers of this list to start a third.  (You'll know who you are
in about 15 minutes when you get a second mail from me.  8^)  So already,
I would like to start up a mailing list for the FAQ effort.  Additionally,
I have been thinking of putting the FAQ into CVS, but until I have it
broken out into multiple files ala DocBook, I don't know that it would
be very helpful to anyone.

How does this sound?

--
Todd Graham Lewis            32°49'N,83°36'W          (800) 719-4664, x2804
******Linux******         MindSpring Enterprises      tlewis@mindspring.net