Hello Don and the gNS list,
I haven't really done all that much for the documentation so far. This
is partly because I'm rather busy at school (I'm in my last year at high
school, with my final exams coming up) and partly because I'm rather
lazy. I intend to contribute more heavily after my exams.
I think it is important to have the documentation structure worked out
before we start writing the documentation itself; existing documentation
is rather incoherent and unstructured, and this can be avoided by
planning how to structure and integrate the documentation before it's
written. This will also make it easier to coordinate, because we'll be
able to allocate people certain pieces of documentation to write.
I agree with determining the structure in advance.
When I first "took charge" of the documentation I made a contents page
at http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Documentation/ and that is the only
structure I've planned so far. I haven't really done anything since
then. The structure certainly needs some improvements, or a complete
rewrite.
A bit of discussion on how to structure the initial documentation, and
what topics to have, is therefore needed. Please share any suggestions
you may have. Then I'll be able to put together a final documentation
outline. Once this general plan has been worked out people wanting to
help will be able to put their names by the sections they'd like to
write and then start writing.
I've made a page at
http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Documentation/ProposedStructure which can be
used to show the work-in-progress structure. I suppose a traditional
contents type structure with sections and subsections would be better
than the table structure currently in use.
O.k., How about this? I propose the following:
Building on your sections and subsections:
<> Installing gNS
<> Standard Installation
<> Partitioning your hard drive manually
<> Administering gNS (with basic advice on sensible settings where feasible)
<> Security
<> Users & Groups
<> Remote desktop
<> Using gNS
<> GNOME
<> KDE
<> Common Applications (Burning Dog, OOo, etc.)
<> Working With the Command-Line
<> Advanced Topics
<> Configuring Funky Hardware (title ain't important, but having such a section is)
<> Networking
<> E-Mail & Spam stuff
<> RDBMSes
<> Etc.
Well, this is a start. If this looks like something we can work with, I'll add it into the wiki, under proposed structure.
It would be a good idea to have an "Overall Documentation Deputy" listed
at http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Main/CurrentProjects so if anyone (such as
Don) is interested, feel free to volunteer!