Re: improving the CG

[Ian Hulin]

Hi Mark, Graham,

On 19/12/09 10:49, Graham Percival wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 10:35:28PM -0800, Mark Polesky wrote:
> > Without intending the slightest offence towards those of you
> > who've already put a lot of work into the CG, I think it can
> > still be clearer.
>
> The only organization that's gone into the CG is putting stuff
> into chapters.  The section organization with chapters is
> generally a mess.  CG 1 and 3 have a ok layout, but the rest had
> almost no thought put into it.
>
> If you want to add lots of explanations to CG 1.1 to 1.3, I'd
> disagree (because short text + clear examples works better).  But
> if you're doing anything anywhere else, it should be fine.
One opportunity here is that Chapter 1 makes the assumption that Linux 
users only use command-line and Windows users only use the GUI.

Trevor did a brilliant job with the Windows section and in some respects 
it's clearer and less forbidding than the material in 1.1 to 1.4.  It 
also duplicates a lot of the material in those sections.

Since Windows git installs the bash shell for use by git anyway it 
doesn't stop Windows users doing git operations via the command line if 
that's what they're more comfortable with.

I reckon the steps in 1.1-1.4 could have alternates examples/instructions
        Using the command line
        Using the GUI
	Any special steps needed for a particular platform, (Windows, MacOSX, 
Linux etc.)

I'm willing to try a merge of the information in 1.1-1.4 and what's in 
1.5 and do a prototype draft using OpenOffice.  If you guys think that 
flies I'll then translate that back into texinfo source.

If you're already addressing this, Mark, or you think this is a terrible 
idea, Graham, then I'll butt out and leave it to you.

Cheers,
Ian