On Monday 24 January 2005 09:23, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> We have limited resources, and we allocate them for maximum benefit.
> If Subversion 1.1.2 is truly the difference between you being able to do
> your work, and not, we can probably find a way to do it, but my impression
> is that it is a "nice to have", which would allow you to use some of its
> new features.
If it was a nice to have I would not be pushing so hard. To clear why.
Ubuntu is built on Debs and GNOME. The benefit is obvious. However, in order
to take advantage or benefit from the upstream work, we need a way to access
it that can be common among writers.
The principle of how the mechanics works may make this clearer.
Essentially, the User Guide can be heavily based on GNOME Docs. Majority of
the content will be brought in by inclusion using XInclude and XPointer. So a
section may look like this:
==========
Ubuntu Sect Title
Ubuntu introduction para.
XInclude or XPointer of GNOME doc.
============
Now GNOME docs are not in SVN, but in CVS. Furthermore, the docs are stored
with each app, usually under the directory appname/C/help/ . This means a
vendor drop is not just one checkout, but many. Unless you want to bring the
app src code into your repository too. In this case we don't need that so we
just want the appname/C/help/ from each app in GNOME CVS. I have automated
this and updates using scripts.
As far as I can see this process may be easier under Bazaar, but the basic
principle is the same. I will look into this is people decide to move to
Bazaar (Please advise). Only by having a copy of the GNOME doc in the writers
Working Copy can XInclude/XPointer work for building.
Now in certain cases writers will need to make changes in the GNOME part of
the section outlined above. In thi scase we must decide if this is GNOME
specific or ubuntu specific. If the change is GNOME specific we should try to
patch and move it upstream.
So the Ubuntu docs can be viewed as a patch on the GNOME docs. To manage this
effectively, the concept of vendor drops is the most efficient.
In short we need this because it will enable the doc team to produce Ubuntu
docs in the most efficient manner. There is no point rewriting what GNOME or
any other desktop have done. The time required with current human resources
will be more than a year. People may not know this, but a single page of
documentation, done properly, takes on average 5 hours to reach final
production quality. So if you have a 100 page book it probably took 500
hours. We can drastically reduce this by building on top of GNOME or any
other Desktops work.
--
Sean Wheller
Technical Author
sean@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
084-854-9408
http://www.inwords.co.za
Registered Linux User #375355
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