Hello everyone, Sorry to jump into the fray a little late here; I have been thinking about what all of you have had to say.
About Mozilla's Help's current state: I would say that Mozilla's Help is definitely not "useless" or "atrocious." It is useful and useable. However, that does not mean it cannot be improved. I see several advantages in : a)Formatting the Help File in XML + XSLT or Docbook in order to make changing its look and feel, and "versioning" (adding/removing information specific to Mozilla or Netscape) easier. b)Considering whether it would make the end-user experience easier if each subtopic had its own page, so that scrolling would be limited. As Steve Rudman pointed out, having many small files would make maintaining the Help System harder. So, if we go with this system (of smaller files), I think we should change to a more flexible editing/transformation solution (XML + XSLT or something else.) About existential questions for Mozilla's help file: I believe no matter how good software is, if it isn't documented well, it is harder to learn, understand and improve. Even *developers* appreciate end-user documentation - it tells them what the software can and cannot do. And good end-user documentation saves everybody's time - including that of developers. I think it is unfair to assume that something for developers has no need for documentation; if you make that assumption, you are also assuming that all developers have the time to figure things out by trial and error - when in fact, in reality, developers need straight answers to how features work just as much as "normal" people do. So, there are good reasons for Mozilla's help file to exist. About whether all of our (open community member) efforts on help are needed/useful (constitute well spent time): in short: Yes! I think it is great that the documentation effort has gotten a sudden boost from the open community! Both Netscape employees and open community members can work together to develop a great common documentation pool. Such a colloboration will help both Netscape-the-product and Mozilla-the-product. I think it is important to establish a sense of understanding between these two groups, and a common set of goals. We have to work together, for the betterment of Mozilla and Netscape. About rewriting the help file: I think it will not be useful to rewrite the help file completely. After all, we have great content already - it just has to be restructured - re-rerepresented so that help-seekers can find specific information they seek, without feeling lost or overwhelmed. This is not to say that finding specific information is not possible with the current help system (through the Sidebar search system or through the index), but that it could be made easier (by making the files shorter, by graphically representing topic structures, by providing screenshots, by listing realted items and keywords after each subtopic, and by providing links to external resources.) So, I think we all have a role to play - and that no one is wasting their time! We just need to all work peacefully together towards a common goal (or a set of common goals) - so that we can provide better documentation for Mozilla and Netscape. Kind Regards, - Jay
