Re: documentation size

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 11:41:30AM +0200, Martin Tarenskeen wrote:
>
> On Sun, 25 Apr 2010, James Bailey wrote:
>
>> I realize that downloading and reading the documentation offline is not 
>> for everyone, but is there a way to make a documentation for download 
>> that isn't so large?

Download individual pdfs?

>> Alternatively, is there an option for the documentaiton that doesn't 
>> have absolutely everything (maybe one without regression tests and 
>> snippets) for download purposes, for someone who just likes to have the 
>> documentation offline?

Individual pdfs would do that, but I suppose we could try making
the html docs without the regtests.  Snippets are a main manual,
so I'm reluctant to omit them.  Although I suppose we could make a
"totally lightweight" version of only Notation and Internals, for
advanced users who want docs for each latest version.


> I have modified my fedora spec file  
> to only package the English documentation. I removed all the 
> translations.

Oh, that's a good idea, too.

> Another thing that can be removed if you want to read the documentation  
> offline with your browser is the PDF versions of the manual. They contain 
> exactly the same information as the html version, right ?

Yes.

> And why should everything be available both as "big-page" and separate  
> html files ?

That's been planned for over a year, and it's in the tracker as
http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=946


I'll add the new ideas from this thread to that issue.  Of course,
this issue isn't going to be completed for months, so don't hold
your breath.

If a Frog wanted to try it, he should expect 10-20 hours.  But
even that's probably an underestimate -- and be warned that
they'll be some of the most confusing, annoying 10-20 hours that
you've ever spent on lilypond contributing.  You'll be dealing
with the most broken part of lilypond development, you'll be
asking simple questions and get little or no response, you'll be
cursing all the previous developers... I really don't recommend a
Frog attempting this.


Cheers,
- Graham