Re: ANNOUCE: gTrouble - New project [summary]

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

* Dermot Musgrove (dermot@glade.perl.connectfree.co.uk) wrote:
> Tom Gilbert wrote:
> > 
> > I think, rather than a standalone (separate) app, I'm going for a
> > library (libGuide?) and a feature for next generation help browser,
> > which will use this lib.
> Why didn't I think of 'guide' as a name? It would probably be immediately
> obvious to a user. I am not that fond of capital letters in software names 
> but hey, what do I know?

Fair enough. I generally refer to my software using capitals, but code
it without. The idea of libguide appeals to me, so I'll go with it.

> Please consider making it easy to bind. I know nothing about binding
> libraries but I use many (in perl). I guess that there are decisions to 
> be made now that would help/hinder the development of bindings.

Defininitely in the TODO file in my head :)
 
> > Everyone hates writing docs. There's no point me writing anything
> > unless it make the creation of powerful docs _easy_.
> I know that many people dislike the lack of rigour in HTML but I reckon
> that the ability to render most documents that I can load has helped to 
> make the WWW the success that it is. I can start with a plain text file 
> and add markup and links as I learn - or as I can find the time. I _really_
> hope that your 'guide' system makes no demands on the documenter's ability
> to grasp the whole picture before they begin to write.

Thats kinda one of the neat things about using xml. The structure is
well defined, but bits can certainly be skipped. The parsing code I
have wrote last night certainly allows for omissions, check it out under
the gtrouble module in cvs.

> > XML tags for creating layout / question-answer links etc are fine, and
> > I can cope with this. The problem for me now, is working out how
> > simplify the kind of complex/branching structures a good
> > trouble-shooter needs, and to include (and make use of) extra
> > information, such as:
> > 
> > o email feedback to program/guide author if certain conditions are
> >   met.
> > o Storing answers to questions for later use/comparison/submission
> > o Providing tests.
> As I said, I don't know much about XML but I gather that there are ways
> to embed code within the markup.
> 
> >   This point is important to me, as it is my edge. I   don't like
> >   to work on software that doesn't have an edge. In this   case,
> >   defining tests which could be refered to in the XML, could  make
> >   some guides semi-automatic. If you can't get your modem to work,
> >   the guide could immediately tell you that pppd isn't installed,
> >   without asking irrelevant questions...
> > 
> > ie. how much should the library do, and how much functionality should
> > the help-program/library-using app provide?
> If I haven't misunderstood what is possible with XML and embedded
> code can be interpreted you don't need to add much functionality at all.
> Scripts (eg perl) could make any necessary checks and store any values 
> without 'guide' doing anything more specific than providing a framework
> and some standards and third party modules/macros could do similar jobs 
> to automake and extend it into a very powerful tool.

Cool.

> > Ok. I'm going to get some kind of proof-of-concept hacked together
> > over the weekend, using libxml to read a guide (qhich I will make
> > up), and gtk widgets to ask questions/display answers.
> > Then we'll see how feasible all this stuff is, people'll know what I'm
> > talking about a little more, and I'll know what questions I need to ask
> > people. Anyway, I won't know the full scope of this endevour until I
> > start to hack.
> I reckon that the possibilities are too numerous to imagine but an open, 
> extensible framework with the minimum of requirements from writers or
> developers could rule the world. Please publish as much and as soon as
> you feel able.

Keep an eye on the gtrouble module. I'll keep it up to date with a
working example as much as possible.

> Regards, Dermot

Thanks for the feedback.

Tom.
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