Re: [MC]: better FAQ.

[Peter Masiar <peter masiar yale edu>]

Quoting Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>:

> > > MC is not part of GNOME.  GNOME hosts our mailing lists and CVS
> > > repository.  
> > MC's homepage mentions GNOME and URL is on GNOME. 
> Both problems are fixed.  Thank you!  Actually, the reference to GNOME is 
> left, but it's much closer to the reality now.

I assume that www.ibiblio.org is more convenient for you to use,
than was gnome.org. I might be just me, but MC being just a folder 
in some unrelated site feels cheap - and worse: not easy to remember.

I checked mc.sourceforge.net - it is not taken yet. 
I can assume that sourceforge is here to stay - so this might be
permanent *respectable* homepage for MC. 
With CVS and stuff on GNOME as now.

Does it ring with you?

> > Don't you think it will be usefull for newcomers here, 
> > if email footer has a link to MC homepage and FAQ? And archives?
> People who want to find the homepage and the FAQ can find them.

You are right. I was just thinking how to made finding URL
to real MC homepage easy and obvious.

> Actually, the homepage is mentioned in the hints.  I think that the hints
> should be gradually removed and replaces with a clear interface and clear,
> well organized documentation.

I never heard about _this_ clear interface and docs. ;-)
And for really powerfull tool, as MC is and plans to remain, 
is not possible (or maybe even desirable).

> On the other hand, if the homepage changes (as it did while I was writing
> this e-mail :-)), do you want to change it in 20 or 50 places, including
> documents in the languages you don't understand?  What if those documents
> require certain formatting?

mc.sourceforge.net could stay for ever, IMHO.

> In fact, lib/mc.hint.cs doesn't fit 80 columns after replacing
> www.gnome.org with www.ibiblio.org, and I cannot do anything to make it
> shorter :-(

You are lucky guy! I can do it: 
My native language is Slovak, I can fix this for you!
(I removed "na" at the end of the line - not required)
Use:
Tip: Domácí stránka programu Midnight Commander je http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
or even:
Tip: Domácí stránka programu Midnight Commander je http://mc.sourceforge.net/

> You just cannot imagine how badly the project is locked with respect to
> the documentation just because many contributors preferred to document
> defects rather than fix them.

You are right, I cannot. ;-)

> > > > (3) At MC homepage, can we place link to FAQs into more prominent
> place?
> > > I agree, the homepage needs more work.
> >
> > Just simple reorder: put para3 first (what MC is), screenshots, FAQ
> > and HOW-TOs first (for newbies). Then, technical stuff for gurus.
> > Use [H2] FAQ [/H2] to make FAQ more visible. Not much of work, IMHO.
>
> H2 meant for headers of sections of the second level.  I'm not using any
> sections.  Besides, the homepage is a table - what sections can be in a
> table?

I meant to simple [FONT size="+4"] FAQ [/FONT].

I'll can ask my fiendly neighbor web designer to look 
at MC homepage, redesign it, and if you like it, take it.

Are you interested?

> > > > (6) About forgetting F-keys:
> > > > This bug bite me, too, before I realized what is going on. Bad news,
> > > > this bug will bite a novice when just experimenting with MC - and
> might
> > > > scare her away from MC forever.
> > > Also in TODO.

I have good experience with creating simple "cheat sheet"
with performance tips/quirks for beginners. Shorter that full FAQ.
We'll see.

> I don't think this question is asked very often.  

Maybe because if this happens, beginner user will just abandon MC,
without even bothering to ask what happened. 8-(

> Did you see src/TODO at all?  It's sorted already, and profile backup is 
> planned for version 4.6.1.

I did not before - I just typed mc into shell - and it worked... ;-)
Now I did.

Do you mean in mc-4.6.0-pre1.tar.gz? IMHO, TODO is not sorted there.
ie, TODO file, in "* Documentation" section says about mc.sgml, mentions [3.x]

> I want to get 4.6.0 released.  There are enough new features already.  
> The translations are mostly frozen, unless the new string is an
> alternative to "core dumped" (as it was with "Macro recursion is too
> deep").

I did not realized there are translations to be taken care of.
Tough...
OK. I will cool down and think.

> > Yeah, now I recall. Exactly as in NC... ;-)
>
> I don't know what you mean.  If you mean my conservatism about new
> dialogs, there are reasons for that.  Users have hard time finding "Learn
> keys" even now.

Because FAQ does not mention that - in the first line! ;-)

> Recommended reading: http://iarchitect.com/
> In particular, looks at this: http://iarchitect.com/tabs.htm#TAB25

Yeah, I am MultiEdit user for 10 years and still find this confusing.
Good site, thank you.

Peter Masiar,