Re: GNOME Users Guide

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Mon, Mar 05, 2001 at 12:08:17AM -0800 or thereabouts, Chris Lyttle wrote:
> Hi All
> I'm about 75% done with updating the Guide, please look at the following 
> link and send comments. (BTW I know the applets isn't done yet ;-)
> 
> http://home.mminternet.com/~chrislyt/users-guide/index.html

Hey, this is looking great! There's a few bits and pieces, but the
rest: woo. There's quite a few "Note: Note" and "Important: Important"
headings, so I assume we have some more <title>s to put in yet. And
as you say, the applets order is a bit odd: in Utility Applets we get,

              Character Picker Applet
              Desk Guide Applet
              Mini-Commander Applet
              Usage
              Customization
              Frequently Asked Questions
              Known Bugs and Limitations
              Further Information
              Drive Mount Applet
              Tasklist Applet

Is this minicommander applet having a different structure from the
rest? 

Also, either this, the FAQ, or the release notes (ideally not the
release notes: no-one will ever find them a month after release) should
have a "visible changes in Gnome 1.4" section. I don't mean "New bug-fixes,
enhanced foo features, now with added standard compliance, underlying
libraries now compile". I mean: 

	File manager: 1.2 used GMC. 1.4 will still let you use this, but
    the preferred file manager is Nautilus. GMC will go away in the future.
    See (foo) for a user's guide to Nautilus. People upgrading an existing
    GNOME setup which already uses GMC will still get that, but Nautilus
    will be an option on the menu. Switching is encouraged. 
	Help-browsing: 1.2 used gnome-help-browser. 1.4 will still let you
    use this, but the preferred help-browsing program is Nautilus. This
    also uses indexing and cross-referencing of the help files.
	Pager: 1.0 had a gnome-pager applet. This was still around for
    1.2, but its function was split between the deskguide and the 
    tasklist. In GNOME 1.4 gnome-pager no longer exists. Use the deskguide
    and or tasklist. 
	Window manager: 1.0 was window manager-agnostic, but enlightenment
    was generally provided by the distributions shipping GNOME. In 1.2, 
    many people and some distributions had switched to sawfish as the 
    default window manager offered. As of 1.4, sawfish is being shipped 
    with gnome as the default. If you are already using a window manager 
    with GNOME, upgrading your GNOME setup will not sneakily change this 
    without your permission. If you are installing or starting GNOME for 
    the first time, 1.4 will give you sawfish by default.

Um. The wording could be better, but that's the sort of thing I mean. 

We did discuss this briefly on #docs in the week, but I don't recall who
was there. If any apps have dropped their own printing set-up in favour
of gnome-print, then I suppose that should go in. There's probably a few
others. I don't think there's that many, though. But they will confuse
people if we don't tell them. "Where's that button that used to be there?"

Getting back to the point, the User's Guide is looking good. 

Telsa