On April 30, 2002, David Crossley wrote: > I too am concerned about the number of hoops that an > author would need to jump through. I prefer the idea about > using CVS scratchpad. I see troubles with having loops of > submit-to-an-editor => editor-review => back-to-author > and then CVS commit at the very end.
You're right, the cvs is the perfect distribution model for this effort. > If we do not use CVS during the drafting, then how > will document authors/editors/QA-testers ever be able > to see and discuss the documents? I would not be happy > if the process involved sending email attachments around > to each other and remembering to Cc, etc. You're right, email attachments would be a pain for most people. Still, if anyone wants me to look at a doc for feedback, before it is committed, I will welcome the opportunity. This is already happening, BTW. I think some authors might like to test their ideas/assumptions/English in a less public way. But of course, this kind of interaction is not scalable. I still think a separate doc-list might work better than cvs. Assuming enough people can participate, I think the result is more synergistic (the sum is greater than the parts) than a bunch of separate edits to a cvs doc. I just worry, based on history, that once a doc is committed to cvs, it is gets neglected, especially if the author is no longer in the loop. > > Also, Diana's step 16 introduces a bottleneck at > the co-ordinator end. >> 16. Author submits patches (or revised docs to >> document coordinator) when updates are necessary. > This should follow the normal Bugzilla process, whereby > diffs are submitted with a [PATCH] subject line, > and any committer who is paying attention picks it > up and commits it to CVS. I certainly didn't mean to create a bottleneck. Still, many authors may be less advanced than all of you with a range of "easy" tasks you all now take for granted. They may not like the bugzilla interface or not have time to learn how to generate a patch (what if they only download binaries?). I agree we should encourage users to work with bugzilla, but if someone wants to send me a document, however imperfect, I will be happy to fix it and commit it -- as a user-friendly gesture. Besides, once we get a more dynamic site, we'll have so many more options for author input (tools like slash-edit). Diana --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
