RFC: TopicBasedHelp specification

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

On Nov 10, 2006, at 12:10 PM, Jonathan Jesse wrote:
>
>> Andreas Lloyd and I have found some time at UDS for a mini-BoF to 
>> write up the TopicBasedHelp specification.
>> <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TopicBasedHelp>
> ...
> My only concern is that we start to diverge and split into a Kubuntu 
> Docs team and an Ubuntu Docs team as the help files begin to look 
> vastly different.  Right now the Kubuntu Desktop Guide shares direct 
> heritage from the Ubuntu Desktop Guide.  This spec calls for a total 
> seperation of the guide especially if we move away from using Docbook 
> for Ubuntu and keeping w/ KDE use Docbook for Kubuntu Guides.  At that 
> point it won't make any sense to have the documents written by the 
> same team, different documents, different language = different teams.  
> At that point it becomes slightly harder for people to work on 
> documentation.  "Which team does this doc help?"  "How do I maintain 
> the server guide in both Docbook for Kubuntu and then in markup 
> lanaguge X for Ubuntu.

Then please do whatever you can to get KDE using a topic-based help 
system sometime in the next six months as well. It's a better approach 
regardless of the environment you're using.

> Do we really gain a vast improvment over what we currently have?

Yes.

> As mentioned in the spec, licensing is a problem yet again.  Will this
> force us to change licensing again?
> ...

Having each topic in its own file will make it easier for multiple 
licenses to coexist.

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/