Subject: Desktop Configuration Part
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.gentoo.documentation, gmane.linux.gentoo.desktop
Date: 2004-05-09 17:18:58 GMT (4 years, 8 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 44 minutes ago)
Hi all,
This is a long e-mail but important for those interested in the development
of the Gentoo Handbook and/or Desktop Configuration. Yet those will still
find it pretty boring. For those who have little time, just go to
**PROPOSAL** further down in this e-mail :)
Some of you know that I'm trying to develop the third part of the Gentoo
Handbook, "Configuring a Gentoo Desktop". However, I never had the problem
that this development was delayed as much as it is now. When I wrote the
Installation Instructions in the form of the Gentoo Handbook it took me a
lot less time/effort. The "Working with Gentoo" part was also written rather
quickly. Yet the "Configuring a Gentoo Desktop" seems like a neverending
effort.
While I was showering today I realised why: I can't stop hiding the feeling
that this isn't right. It is both against my personal opinion about the
Gentoo Handbook and against my personal opinion about why I joined the
Gentoo Documentation Project in the first place.
When I started with the Gentoo Handbook I wanted to have all Gentoo-specific
information in a single document, well-written and with as much detail as
possible so that everybody understands it. The Installation Instructions are
of course a no brainer: they are coherent and necessary and continuously
evolving. It's current format is just an evolutionary step based on the
continuous development of it's content.
The "Working with Gentoo" is a necessary addition as well. It allows
users to learn about Gentoo without having to dig through all the
information. USE flags, Portage, Init Scripts and Environment Variables,
those are the chapters that are indeed Gentoo specific: no other
distribution will really benefit from this documentation apart from getting
the feeling that they (the distributions) have shortcomings that Gentoo has
not (*cough* :)
Yet a "Configuring a Gentoo Desktop" doesn't have much Gentoo-specific
stuff. Configuring the X server is almost identical for every distribution,
getting KDE/GNOME/* configured is neutral as well (which is thanks to the
good efforts of the various ebuild maintainers who make sure that it's
installation is a breeze), and the same goes for the ALSA Guide, DRI Howto
and all other desktop related items.
Those aren't really Gentoo specific. Gentoo's main involvement here is to
allow users to install the desktop with as many choice as possible yet with
as little difficulties. I might be totally missing the point here, perhaps
there are many Gentoo-specifics involved, but I don't know about them.
This brings me to the personal motivation: I like writing documentation. I
really do. In my daily time I'm one of those freaky C/Java software
developers that loves writing requirement docs, business analyses, ... I
love the ISO 9001:2000 standard. When I have free time, I love writing
documentation that has little to do with software development *as long* as
it's about a subject that I'm feeling comfortable with and have sufficient
knowledge of.
And, to be honest, I'm no real desktop guru. The only reason I continuously
work in fluxbox is because I need amsn running to be able to talk with my
girlfriend. All the rest are aterms with vim, mutt, slrn, ... I hate
localising my system (imagine my surprise when I saw that mplayer was
suddenly translated into Dutch even though my LC_LANG isn't set to Dutch),
my laptop is hardly powerful enough to keep up with the GNOME/KDE updates
and all my interest go to security and servers.
So I felt like "no, integrating a desktop part in the Gentoo Handbook isn't
right, not for me anyway". I'd rather like to help the Hardened project get
better documentation (after studying the various security-related
enhancements they make) or improve the Portage documentation and feature
awareness towards the users.
**PROPOSAL**
I'm thinking of dropping the efforts of creating a Desktop Configuration
part and even dropping the Desktop Configuration Guide in it's current form.
Oh yes, shiver and scream - you didn't expect this did you?
I feel that we have lots of talented writers here and on the forums. Having
official desktop-related documentation shouldn't be this hard. What I'd like
to do is continue the development of the existing desktop-related
documentation (such as the DRI Howto and ALSA Guide) and write separate
guides on the information that is still missing (Configuring XFree,
Installing KDE/GNOME, ...).
The Desktop Configuration Guide would then contain pointers to this
documentation for the end-user. You can see desktop.xml as an extension to
the main documentation index which is, if you take a closer look, getting
crowded because of all the documentation available.
Are there any objections if I started doing this? No documentation would be
lost (everything that is currently in the Desktop Configuration Guide will
remain available as separate guides except for the little information that
doesn't belong in the desktop guide in the first place), users can still use
/doc/en/desktop.xml for their primary desktop-related documentation, the
new documentation that is currently in the draft/ would be available and
development of desktop-related documentation can grow without having to
wonder if desktop.xml would be too large.
The main roadmap would be:
- Immediate:
* Migrate draft/hb-working-xorg.xml into xorg-configuration.xml
* Migrate draft/hb-working-kde.xml into kde-guide.xml
* Migrate draft/hb-working-gnome.xml into gnome-guide.xml
* Migrate draft/hb-working-wm.xml into windowmanagers-guide.xml
* Update dri-howto.xml with draft/hb-working-dri.xml
This is almost the same, but I think that hb-working-dri.xml is less
crowded. But Donnie also mentioned that many updates are needed so
I'll leave this up to him (yes, I know, he's not frequently available
currently :)
* Update alsa-guide.xml with draft/hb-working-sound.xml
I think that the hb-working-sound is a necessary rewrite of the ALSA
Guide. I'll go over both documents and make sure no information gets
lost.
- Second step
* Remove desktop.xml and rewrite so it contains a fluent text with
pointers for the users regarding desktop configuration. The stuff about
Apache and Squirrelmail and such would probably disappear as it isn't
desktop-related anyway.
- Future
* Add more and more documentation regarding desktop use by people
intensively involved in desktop development. This includes e-mail docs,
localisation docs, office docs (who knows :) etc.
Thoughts and comments are, as always, welcome.
Wkr,
Sven Vermeulen
--
Bent Hindrup Andersen, Danish MEP, about the Software Patent Directive:
The approach of the Commission and Council in this directive is shocking.
They are making full use of all the possibilities of evading democracy that
the current Community Law provides. <http://lwn.net/Articles/84009/>