Re: why hide the docs?

Last Monday 29 November 2004 13:34, Free Ekanayaka was like:
> |--==> tim hall writes:
>
>   th> Last Monday 29 November 2004 09:55, Free Ekanayaka was like:
>   >>|--==> tim hall writes:
>   th> Is it
>   th> worth getting to grips with docbook or similar?
>
> I  don't   know,   but I  think  docbook   is  a  good  candidate  for
> documentation code.

OK, I'll read up on it. It seems to be the standard. 

>   >>2) Create an official Debian subproject [0] called Debian Multimedia
>   >> [1], which shall deal with the quality of audio/multimedia
>   >> applications in Debian, and in particular takes care that packages are
>   >> well documented, with respect to 1)
>
>   th> And also includes menu structure, icons and other stuff covered by
> Debian th> Policy.
>
> Yes, and also  make sure that  packages are working properly, they get
> updated when the upstream author releases a new version, fix bugs etc.
>
> I just mentioned the doc issue here, but there's *lots* to do..

OK, well, we only live once ;-)
Fortunately A/DeMuDi fits in with one of my major life goals, which is to 
facilitate and encourage people to find creative expression, especially 
through music. The work I'm doing with my local Community Arts Centre seems 
to be bringing these threads together. I really have my work cut out setting 
up the basic system right now, but once that's done we'll have several 
machines to experiment on.

> The policy it's a really important document.

OK, reading it.

>   >>In the real, hic et nunc, world I'd suggest to create a new demudi-doc
>   >>package in the Alioth repository [2].
>   >>\
>   >>We could  use such package as a  temporary workaround to  supply extra
>   >>documentation, whenever Debian  lacks it,  and   to make  the  already
>   >>available documentation (typically in /usr/share/doc/<package>) easier
>   >>to access.
>   >>
>   >>A rough  idea which comes to  my mind right  now is to have demudi-doc
>   >>automatically  create  an html  index  with the  same structure as the
>   >>application menu and whose entries point to /usr/share/doc/<package>.
>
>   th> Yes, it is vital that we all work to the same menu structure - I find
> it's a th> really good way of breaking down the overview into manageable
> chunks. th> It would be useful if the Alioth pages could contain a table of
> Packages / th> Document formats and a column or two where we can grade the
> quality, extent th> and completeness of docs. The most time consuming part
> of the operation seems th> to be figuring out where the blanks are.
>
> That's a good idea, not too difficult to implement. I'll do that.

Cool.

>   th> I'm happy to keep working on the FAQ that is up on Alioth currently,
> I'm doing th> a batch of installs at the moment, so it's something I can
> work on while I'm th> busy. I could do with some direction from the list
> here. I feel that the FAQ th> could have an install guide pulled out of it
> and reduce the FAQ to actual th> questions.
>
> Yes that's what I was trying to do.  Installation info shall all be in
> the Install section of the left-side navigation bar.
>
>   th> That said, if anyone has ideas to add, please don't hold back, we
>   th> can always rationalise later.
>
> Right.

OK, well I'll [g]forge ahead (&alioth) as and when I have time.

tim hall
http://glastonburymusic.org.uk