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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:<br>
1. how to get a copy of the primary documentation, ie the latex source<br>
2. a template for the markup<br>
<br>
Thanks, Tara<br>
<br>
<br>
Otto Dassau wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:20080505093310.174a069b@nature" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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 <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:stephan.holl@intevation.de"><stephan.holl@intevation.de></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi,
Am Montag, 5. Mai 2008 02:20:53 schrieb Tara Athan:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/documentation.html"><http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/documentation.htm
l></a> Docbook is recommended. After a quick perusal of some introductory
material, such as
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ch01.html"><http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ch01.html></a>
it is looking like a good choice to me.
There is an application for converting from laTex to DocBook
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/"><http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/></a>
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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">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
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
just my 0,02¢
Best regards
Stephan Holl
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
My e-mail delivery has been unreliable lately, so I am asking for
return receipts from all my email messages.
OK'ing the return receipt lets me know that my message was delivered.
Thank you.
Tara Athan
Principal, Alternatives to Invasive Species
tara_athan [AT] alt2is.com
707-485-1198
PO Box 415
Redwood Valley, CA 95470</pre>
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