Re: jrb's help ideas

[Mikael Hallendal <micke codefactory se>]

tis 2001-09-04 klockan 02.16 skrev David Merrill:

> > But I agree with greg's other posting that we are indeed a graphical
> > desktop and therefor can make some assumptions about how the users will
> > use the help system.
> 
> I think that you are making an arbitrary distinction between Gnome
> help, specifically, and the rest of the help that should be available
> in the overall system. I think that is a natural viewpoint informed by
> your status as Gnome developers.

As I've already said, I think (and will be working on such a system with
a couple of guys at work) that we should have a system that is not
gnome-specific. But we can't come up with such a system in time of GNOME
2.0.

And I really don't think a server serving html to a browser is a good
help system either. Therefor we are going to try to develop a system
that can output html/xml/or whatever the client wants. In such a system
we can use a nice graphical client (in GNOME/KDE) or a webbrowser.

I don't think we should limit our help system by forcing users to use
browsers without all kinds of nifty features.

> So, just because *you* are a graphical desktop, doesn't mean the help
> system should revolve around *you*. I am really, really not trying to
> start an argument on this issue. Those of you who have worked with me
> at the LDP or elsewhere hopefully know that I am only interested in
> making Linux better for users.

That's another problem, even if we come up with a perfect helpsystem
doesn't mean that KDE or any other project will use it. Then it's all
for nothing. And the same way around. I really hope that we can use the
same helpsystem, in GNOME/KDE/LDP...

And jrb's document does not rule out this. You can still develop a
http-server that fits into the requirements of jrb's document and serves
html to a browser. 

> If you feel you need to take a Gnome-specific approach in order to be
> ready for Gnome 2.0, then so be it. I still think the long term
> solution is one that is not Gnome specific, and I will continue to
> work toward that.

I do feel that we should have a GNOME-specific _help browser_ with nice
features that we can't do in a web browser. That doesn't meen that the
entire system have (and shouldn't) be GNOME-specific.

Regards,
  Mikael Hallendal

-- 
Mikael Hallendal                micke codefactory se
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