Re: [gNewSense-users] Re: gNewSense Documentation

[Mark William Darbyshire]

Thanks Don.

I've put your structure proposal on the Proposed Structure page. I'll
have a look at it and see what other sections I can think of. I'm
thinking that Using gNS should probably go before Administering gNS. But
then, on the other hand, I suppose it's a good idea to instill people
with good habits as soon as possible.

I suppose one big question is: "How advanced is advanced?" Basic use of
the command line? Shell scripting? I suppose it would be a waste of time
writing that sort of thing, since there are plenty of other tutorials
that cover that ground, but we could still offer links to such
tutorials.

In addition to the normal documentation, we'll need some sort of section
that provides help for specific hardware. This sort of thing can't all
be structured into the main documentation. There is such a collection of
pages, currently at http://wiki.gnewsense.org/UserExperiences/ but it
needs a bit of work. Some of the articles on that page would actually
belong in the main Documentation. So I suppose that is a major part of
"Configuring Funky Hardware".

Please put your name or user name with a link to your profile in the
appropriate column at http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Main/CurrentProjects

Thanks again,
Mark.


On Wed, 2007-11-14 at 17:09 -0500, Don Parris wrote:
> On Nov 13, 2007 5:24 AM, Mark William Darbyshire <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>         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!
>         
>         
> I'll play deputy.
> 
> Don
> -- 
> D.C. Parris
> Minister, Journalist, Free Software Advocate
> https://www.xing.com/profile/Don_Parris
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcparris 
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