Re: First pass for LDP-Author-Guide

[David Merrill <dcmerrill@mindspring.com>]

jdd wrote:
> 
[snipped extensively]
> 
> For New Authors
> 
> this paragraph is very confusing. It seems to say that  "you may write
> your documentation in the format of your choice"
> 
> and
> 
> "another LDP volunteer will translate your document into DocBook"
> 
> I don't think this is the "normal" subscription method. anyway I will
> probably very difficult to to this txt to docbook translation (if not, why
> discuss about docbook!)

I was thinking about this today. Perhaps it _is_ better to have LDP
folks do DocBook. That would likely produce more consistent results,
especially when it comes to indexing. If, for instance, an indexer can
go through _all_ of the HOWTOs and index appropriate stuff, we're likely
to get a better index.

On actual software projects, some of the best gains from Open Source
methods is that people who specialize in certain aspects of development
get to work on what they're good at. Wouldn't that principle apply to
the LDP as well? And, on a related note, wouldn't it be a Good Thing to
have the CVS versions the "official" latest-and-greatest, to facilitate
this? Without having been around here long, I feel a bit presumptuous
suggesting policy decisions, but then again I know I'll get slapped down
if I'm off base. ;)

> we absolutely need a ONE SOURCE rpm (or tgz) that install all this stuff
> in one step.

This _would_ be very, very helpful for those of us who are interested in
doing the markup and/or authoring, but not struggling with tools. I'm
not sure what percentage of folks it would really work for.

> "this is the successor to the sgmltools projec"
> 
> what is the interest of saying this ? oldtimers knows this already and
> beginners don't have to.

So that if you see sgmltools out on the net you know it is obsolete for
the LDP.

> just a word : what about non english writers? you propose help for
> translating from txt to docbook, what about translating from - says -
> french to english? may be valuables authors don't speak english...

Hmmm. This seems rather outside the scope of this document. Maybe I just
don't understand what you mean?

-- 
David C. Merrill, Ph.D.
dcmerrill@mindspring.com


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