On Sat, 10 Dec 2011, Lex Trotman wrote:
On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 3:17 AM, Dag Wieers <[email protected]> wrote:
It's clear that ODF support will not be part of AsciiDoc. Which, if you had
told me from the start, would probably have not motivated me to write the
ODF backend, but I am at a point of no return now... Well played ;-)
I think you give too much credit for pre-planning :)
I was only kidding :-) I don't regret anything, it's been all joy !
As asciidoc only just supports plugin backends (and a2x plugins next
release) its not surprising that the documentation doesn't say much
about them. Especially as there are no mature full service plugin
backends yet (all so far are for specialised uses).
If there are places where the documentation should better address
plugin backends then changes should be proposed to Stuart. But
expanding the manual to cover each backend that goes on the plugins
page just isn't viable. Each plugin should have its own manual
addressing the differences from asciidoc/a2x
Well, I would prefer if the plugins/backends were mentioned
in a section of the User Guide and that eg. output-specific attribute
overview would also include other backends (to give it somewhat more
exposure). This would allow for converging attributes and functionality,
or can motivate others to contribute similar functionality in other
backends.
For ODT, the only documentation available is the readme file.
Currently, yes. But I am happy to help wherever needed.
So is there something we can do to promote backends more/better in a future
release ?
Well if you think it is mature enough then it should be proposed to
Stuart that it be added to the plugins page on the website, even if
marked as in-development. But it needs a proper manual, see the slidy
backend for example.
Yes, and an installable zip-file. We'll get to that eventually once I know
for sure the number of changes will be manageable.
Also, I plan to release the ODF backend (as-is) when the next AsciiDoc
version is ready. Even if not everything works exactly as I want, I hope a
wider availability might bring more people to this project to help adding
more themes or finish the backend.
Putting it on the website should get more bugs to fix :) I don't know
about more help. To quote some bloke who knows a thing or two about
open source software (Linus Torvolds) "when you release open source
software you have to assume you will be doing all the work yourself,
and be prepared for that". Only in the longer term will you get more
contributors. (maybe I souldn't have pointed that out :)
Haha :)
It should be clear however that format style (names), attributes and
constructs may still change when we improve the functionality. (eg. the book
doctype currently hardcodes a lot of how the cover looks, which we might
influence through attributes instead)
Well, such comments mark the backend as immature and discourage users,
so it won't get tested so much.
True.
That stage is a long way away IMHO, making comments that "it will
never be part of asciidoc" is way premature at the moment.
That's not what I understood from the discussions. But we'll see where
this is going first, I agree with your reasoning though.
--
-- dag wieers, [email protected], http://dag.wieers.com/
-- dagit linux solutions, [email protected], http://dagit.net/
[Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors]
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