[Qgis-community-team] Re: documentation format

Mon May 5 12:08:38 EDT 2008

good latex editor depends on the operating system :)

on linux i still use Kile [1] (KDE) which suits for every situation
on Windows i mostly prefer TexMaker [2] because Kile is not available for
Windows and TexMaker is a very fine tool too once it is configured correctly
(especially on windows with ghostscript and ghostview and MikTeX and all
other things to be installed also)
Once ago i used TeXniccenter [3]  too but I'm not very good in using windows
at all and it seems to be not very actively developed any more ..
For MacOS youre on your own because I don't own a Mac myself.
good luck

[1]http://kile.sourceforge.net/
[2]http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
[3]http://www.toolscenter.org/

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 5:12 PM, Otto Dassau <otto.dassau at gmx.de> wrote:

> Hi Tara,
>
> have you read the information at the DocumentationWritersCorner? For
> Windows
> there is a SVN-client named "Tortoise SVN". The download page is here:
>
> http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads
>
> I only don't know good latex editors, so here others can help, also give
> some
> hints to get into it:
>
> Step 1) checkout from svn:
> - install the tortoise svn tool and reboot
> - right mouse click on the desktop and select SVN checkout (popup window)
> - in the popup window enter repo URL to english  master doc in head:
>  https://svn.osgeo.org/qgis/docs/trunk/english_us/user_guide and checkout
> dir:
>  e.g.  \xxx\xxx\Tara\Desktop\qgis-user_guide
> -> this checks out only the english userguide without translation branches
>  at the moment, enogh for the beginning I think
>
> Step 2) edit latex files:
> - change into trunk: \xxx\Tara\Desktop\qgis-docs\user_guide\
> - latex text sources are in *.tex files
> - now you need a latex editor and I don't know what tool is nice to use
> for
>  windows, so others need to help.
>
> Step 3) commit changes back to svn:
> - inside the user_guide folder with a right mouse -> TortoiseSVN you can
>  commit, check for modifications etc.
>
> hope this helps for the beginning. Help for Tortoise SVN is availble here:
> http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/index.html
>
> regards,
>  Otto
>
>
> On Mon, 05 May 2008 07:17:13 -0700
> Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, OK I'll give it a try. Do we have a set of instructions for
> someone just
> > getting started contributing to documentation? I am finding it difficult
> to
> > get off the ground here.  What I am looking for is:
> > 1. how to get a copy of the primary documentation, ie the latex source
> > 2. a template for the markup
> >
> > Thanks, Tara
> >
> >
> > Otto Dassau wrote:Hi Tara,
> >
> > I would also propose to work with latex, at least for the moment. As
> Gary and
> > Stephan said, everything is there and working, so you don't have to
> learn much
> > to get started, it is flexible and there are many people (incl. me), who
> > are willing and able to help and assist, if there are problems. We
> already
> > thought of changing to another tool, but always came back to latex.
> >
> > If you like you can nominate Stephan, Otto and many other people in the
> project
> > as "latex admins", so you don't have to worry, if something doesn't
> work.
> >
> > If the long run I agree, it might make sense to switch to another
> system,
> > especially when I think of a smooth and easy translation of the master
> > document. This is currently more difficult (labour-intensive) and not
> solved,
> > but we all will help you there as well and find the best solution
> together.
> >
> > >From my point of view, you don't have to be a latex guru at all and all
> you
> need
> > to know about latex to contribute, coordinate and lead the documentation
> process
> > is really very limited - no need to worry about ;-)
> >
> > regards,
> >  Otto
> >
> > On Mon, 5 May 2008 06:40:52 +0200
> > Stephan Holl <stephan.holl at intevation.de> wrote:
> >
> >   Hi,
> >
> > Am Montag, 5. Mai 2008 02:20:53 schrieb Tara Athan:
> >     Hello, all! In a moment of madness, I agreed to lead the QGIS
> > documentation team. Currently, the documentation is developed in latex
> > and then exported to html and pdf formats. I see a few problems with
> this:
> > 1. documentation contributors have to learn latex or someone has to be
> > the middle-man to convert their contributions to latex
> > 2. latex mixes presentation and structural markup- recommended practice
> > is to separate them
> > 3. I haven't used latex in over 20 years.
> > So I would like to propose that we change to a different format
> > (understanding full well and accepting the responsibility for converting
> > from the old format to the new)
> >
> > In this reference
> >
> > <
> http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/documentation.htm
> > l> Docbook is recommended. After a quick perusal of some introductory
> > material, such as
> >   <http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ch01.html>
> > it is looking like a good choice to me.
> > There is an application for converting from laTex to DocBook
> >    <http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/<http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/%7Egurari/TeX4ht/>
> >
> >
> > I would like to know if anyone on the team has experience in using this
> > format and can offer advice as to whether this would  be a good idea.
> >       I have worked with latex for documentation for several year now
> and I
> think
> > that it is worth learning it!
> >
> > >From my point of view we should use our time to complete the docs in
> latex
> and
> >
> >   not waste time in converting from on to another format.
> >
> > I can offer a hand to fix some latex-issues if needed since I am quite
> > familiar with the latex-code used in the docs.
> >
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> >       Stephan Holl
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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