-------- Original Message -------- From: Keith N. McKenna <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:18:34 -0400
> Greetings All; > > In order to stimulate some discussion on user documentation I have added > the hollowing page to the User Documentation Plan on the Plannig Wiki: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/User+Guides+Revisted. > It offers 3 scenarios or the creation of the docs. I believe that we can > no longer put this issue aside. > > Please take a look at the page and eel free to comment there and on this > list. Also feel free to add to or change any content there. > > Regards > Keith N. McKenna Hi Keith, This issue was extensively, although inconclusively, discussed last year. Thank you for revisiting a much neglected aspect of the project. In order to avoid confusion I believe we should define "documentation" in the form that I believe you are referring to. I see this as documentation made available to end users, separate from, but in sync with, that which forms part of the released code. (eg. the in-built help facility.) Obviously scenario 1 is not an option, because _good_ end user documentation is an essential component of post=installation support. Scenario 2 under "Cons": "Licensing issues". We are already hosting the existing "outdated" guides on Apache servers (eg. http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation). "Possible distribution issues". As stated above the type of "documentation" we are discussing here does not form part of the source or (convenience) binaries. In the event that either of the above were to be a graduation issue Apache Extras, ODFAuthors, could be options available to us. I do not see Scenario 3 as a viable option. Yes it would give us all a nice warm fuzzy feeling to say that everything in any way related to AOO was ALV2 licensed. In reality we would need to recruit a large number of skilled technical writers, an animal which is extremely rare and difficult to catch. Even if this were possible, it would be unlikely that the end result would be very different, albeit more refined, from what we already have. The ODFAuthors (OOoAuthors) worked on the original documentation for ~10 years and it is still incomplete. Even though work on AOO documentation at ODFAuthors virtually stopped when Jean Hollis Weber resigned from this project, the door remains open for us to pick up and carry on the work already done there. Now that my health is returning to something approaching normal, this would be a good starting point for me to get fully involved. Hopefully we can quickly come to a consensus and start moving forward on this. Regards Dave
