> Patrik Stridvall <psÉleissner.se> writes:
>
> > Well, we must of course include the generate text of the SGML source
> > in the CVS tree. Requiring everybody that want to read documentation
> > to install the SGML tools is not an option IMO.
>
> I'm not sure it has to be in CVS.
Of course it doesn't _have_ to be in the CVS.
> CVS is useful to allow people to
> always have the latest version of the code, but this is not really
> necessary for formatted docs; unlike code, you don't really need to
> update your version of the doc everytime a typo is fixed.
Hmm, I don't know, while a computer reading typos have a very
predictable behavior people has not. :-)
Seriously, not everybody has an permanent internet connection,
so have the documentation in the tree while offline is useful.
> I think having a script on WineHQ that periodically regenerates the
> formatted docs in a variety of formats and makes them available for
> download should be enough.
Perhaps, but I would prefer the documentation in text format
in the tree.
> > DocBook because it exists tools that can converted it to
> > all other serious alternatives like HTML and texinfo and
> > even text, this kind makes the other formats "obsolete".
>
> Most serious formats have converters for all kinds of other formats;
> I'm not sure this makes any of them obsolete. We obviously need a
> source format that can be converted to a lot of things; but DocBook is
> not unique in this respect.
By obsolete I was primarily refering to texinfo and HTML.
Texinfo is old and ill equipped to handle the depends of today
and even worse the future, HTML is a kludge that no serious
person would write documentation in. It is barely adequate
to write webpages, the only reason people use it is because
it is the "standard" ("" because there are small differences
between different browsers).
Sure there are other SGML or otherwise document formats, but
none except DocBook that has any serious "market" (open source projects)
share. Except LinuxDoc (or whatever it was called) that has been
decapriated for DocBook IIRC.
We are a large project, that even has the potential to be the
very largest of the open source projects. We must either use
a standardized widely used format, or push something that has
the potential to be a standardized widely used format.
That is what I mean that we shouldn't use "obsolete" formats
we must use something that is _really_ good.
Using texinfo or HTML is just pathetic and using
text will very soon be inadequate I fear.
We must either lead (find or design something better than DocBook)
or follow (use DocBook), I can see no other alternatives.
