On Friday 05 January 2001 12:30, James Green scratched this in the dirt:
> I don't think messing about with the Bugzilla UI is something that we
> do. What we will however be involved in is ensuring the documentation on
> how to use Bugzilla is converted and maintained consistent with the rest
> of the mozilla.org site.
Absolutely. If someone creates a DSL (for SGML) or XSL (for XML) to
convert documents to a format you want, you're in business. The SGML source
will be checked into the CVS tree; although I'll probably check in .txt
compiled versions as well (and maybe HTML?), it's the SGML that matters.
XML is SGML-lite; as soon as I lowercase all the tags in the document, it
will work equally well against the XML DocBook DTD as it does against the
SGML DocBook DTD...
> The Bugzilla UI is not something I have a problem with. I know people
> are working on Bugzilla v3 and that is there job, not ours.
Right, not until Bugzilla 3.0 is anyone worried about abstracting the UI
away from the API and database. Nobody has an ETA on it; I'm only focussed
on Bugzilla 2.X series docs right now.
> Could SGML be used throughout the site, with a processor on the
> server-side to spit out html/css in whatever versions we desire? Is this
> feasable? We can't seem to agree between the major HTML versions to use,
> so maybe selecting the right one based on the browser request is more a
> likely solution?
Well, yes and no. Compiling the whole thing into HTML takes roughly 7
seconds on my 500MHz Linux box; roughly the same to compile to PDF or PS. I
would strongly recommend a conversion to DocBook of existing documentation,
simply because it's the data *type* you're interested in, not the layout.
Worrying about layout is a recipe for disappointment, as the fact that
mozilla.org wants the docs, but wants them "customized" for the site, clearly
illustrates.
Is there any effort underway to standardize on a doc format at mozilla.org?
DocBook SGML/XML is still gaining in popularity, despite the original
version being nearly 10 years old. If I can volunteer to help convert any
documentation to DocBook, or any pilot program to see if it works for
mozilla.org, let me know. I've only been using it 3 months now, but I've
fallen in love!
> I think the words, "stay tuned," are relevant to you. Our side is
> revamping the main mozilla.org site, which will include bugzilla
> documentation, but not bugzilla itself.
Right on. Do you already have some internal bugzilla documentation you're
working on? I keep hearing discussions about "bugzilla documentation", but
so far have never seen anything but my FAQ, Guide, and the assorted help that
comes with the Bugzilla distro itself.
Thanks.
--
Matthew P. Barnson Manager, Systems Administration
Excite@Home [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"There is no spoon" -- Neo
