Transition to Mallard?

[Matthew East]

Hi Thomas,

On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 10:51 PM, Thomas R. Jones
<thomas.jones at maitreyasecurity.com> wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2010, at 4:30 PM, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Kyle Nitzsche
>> <kyle.nitzsche at canonical.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  * simpler syntax: docbook isn't that hard for writers. If you can't
>>> deal with it, should you really be writing docs?
>>
>> Quite aside from the merits of this discussion, which is definitely
>> interesting, this isn't an attitude that I want to see projected by
>> the documentation team to potential contributors and for that reason I
>> feel compelled to reply to it.
>
> And neither should shoving mallard down the throats of dissenting opinion.
> There is no time constraints to speak of to push the "new" project into
> implementation. What is the need for such a hurried implementation? It's
> obvious to the list that yourself and a few others are spearheading the
> development and possible use of mallard.

I'd like you to read my posts on this thread more carefully - I think
you'll find that I've advocated caution for this release cycle.
However we must have an open mind about this for several reasons.
First, an open mind is a generally good thing. Second, our upstream
for desktop help has already taken the decision to move to Mallard. If
we want to collaborate with them and use the material that they will
produce (which we do), we must engage with that. Doing that promptly
gives us a chance to be involved with some of the changes they are
making and help guide that work as well as ensure that what they are
doing fits our needs. Third, there are a lot of advantages to using
Mallard for desktop help which have already been covered elsewhere in
this thread.

> So why can't you and the community
> allow others to review and comment before a before a decision is made?

As Phil said, and as has been made very clear, there is no question of
a decision being made before this has been tested. We listen to anyone
who posts on the mailing list and will take any constructive comments
into account when taking any decision. It's worth saying that this
isn't exactly the first discussion we are having about Mallard: we
have been aware of it for some time and Phil, Milo and Jim have been
quite involved with following its development.

>> I agree that docbook isn't impossible to get to learn and can be
>> picked up with a certain amount of practice, but anyone who has worked
>> with a volunteer group like this one for any extended period knows
>> that it does get in the way, and it is a barrier to entry. We welcome
>> contributions from any member of the community, whether they feel
>> comfortable with docbook or not. That's one of the reasons why we
>> welcome contributions in plain text, or via wiki markup. It's
>> absolutely not true that anyone who isn't comfortable with dealing
>> with docbook isn't welcome in this team or is unable to contribute to
>> our documentation.
>
> So your opinion is that ubuntu doc contributors are incapable or unwilling
> to learn? That doesn't bode well for your opinion of our contributors.

No, again if you read what I've written, you'll see that I haven't
said anything like that.

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF