ANNOUNCE: The GTK+ Reference Documentation Project

[Damon Chaplin <damon karuna freeserve co uk>]

                 The GTK+ Reference Documentation Project (RDP)
                                                 
                            http://www.gtk.org/rdp


What is it?

  GTK+ is already a very stable, powerful, and flexible toolkit. The
  greatest lack at the current time is good reference documentation. 

  The GTK+ Reference Documentation Project (RDP) aims to provide a complete
  set of reference material for the GLib, GDK, and GTK+ libraries. This
  documentation will cover the upcoming version 1.2 releases of GLib and
  GTK+. 


What will be the format of the documentation?

  The reference documentation will be based on the DocBook SGML DTD. 

  It will be created using the gtk-doc system, which parses C header files
  and creates 'template' files which are then filled in by the authors.
  These template files are then converted into DocBook SGML, and from
  there to HTML, man pages, or printed output. 


What will be the license of the documentation?

  Although the details have not yet been finalized, the material created
  by the RDP will be placed under a quite unrestrictive license, which
  will allow the redistribution and reprinting of the included material. 

  Any example code included in the documentation will be placed in the
  public domain. 


What's the connection to Red Hat Software?

  A group of authors (Owen Taylor, Tim Janik, and Ian Main) are working on
  a book about GTK+ to be published by Red Hat Software. As part of the
  book, they wanted to include a reference for GTK+. Since reference
  material should be maintained along with the source code, it was decided
  that the best course was to make the creation of the reference
  documentation a public project, ask for contributions from outside, and
  to make the result freely available for reprinting and redistribution. 


Do contributors need to sign a copyright assignment?

  Yes. Since the goal of the project is to produce publishable material,
  we feel it is important to have an unambiguous and defensible license
  on the documentation. The only way to do this is to have clear ownership
  of copyright. 

  Although the details have, again, not been finalized, the intention is
  to have the assignee be Red Hat Software. We feel that this is the most
  convenient solution, and should not pose a problem. However, if you want
  to contribute to the project, but, for some reason, don't find this
  acceptable, please let us know, and we'll try to work out an alternative
  arrangement.


How do I contribute?

  Have a look at the status page (http://www.gtk.org/rdp/status.html) to
  see which sections have not already been taken. Then mail
  damon@karuna.freeserve.co.uk with a list of sections you are willing to
  write. 

  We'll divide up the work to avoid duplication of effort, and get back to
  you with an "assignment". 

  Once the details are decided upon, you'll be asked to sign and mail in
  an assignment of copyright. Your work will not be incorporated into the
  distributed versions until we receive this. 

  Because of the need for clear copyright ownership, please make sure that
  all contributions you make are your original work. Do not copy text from
  elsewhere.



Damon Chaplin (RDP coordinator) <damon@karuna.freeserve.co.uk>