Re: Helping with the documentation

[Pedro Kröger]

"Bart Kummel" <address@hidden> writes:

> About the "tarballs". Most Windows users don't even know what a
> "tarball" is. 

no problem, a zip file can also be generated. anyway, AFAIK all major
unzip programs for windows extract tarballs and other formats as well.

> In the current setup, every piece of documentation has to go through
> your hands.

and that's a good thing to maintain quality and accuracy. if using a
wiki he had to go every page to make sure the information is good and
current. IMHO it's a mistake to assume that editorial control is not
needed in a wiki. in fact, I found editorial control much harder in
wiki-like environments.

> One of the reasons that earlier wiki's weren't a big success could be
> that people do not want another place to look for documentation.
> Therefore the best solution (in my opinion) is to replace the current
> docs with a wiki.

well, I don't have a saying on this, but since there were already 2
unsuccessful wiks in the past I doubt Graham, Jan, or Han-Wen will set
it up. Why don´t you set one up as a proof of concept and show how it
can be better then the current setup?

> I think the way the documentation is done now is a little bit
> oldfashioned.

maybe, but this old-fashioned setup can generate html, pdf, and info;
has a decent revision control (most wikis have only very basics
control version features). another point is that it is concurrent, many
people can work on it at the same time. There is not a wiki that allows
that. and because wikis are centralized, if the main server is down one
can not work on it.

not to mention that the wiki format is a *mess*, heve you tried to
convert a complex doc from one wiki to annother? the texinfo format may
be old-fashioned, but it's stable and well supported.

Regards,

Pedro Kroger